World Cup and Irish Open

By Mick McCloskey

I’ve just returned from sunny Barcelona where I had the honour of playing for Ireland in the Poker Stars World Cup of Poker. The World Cup is a team event which started as an online free roll to select team members. Around 60 teams of four then played a series of elimination rounds to get down to the final eight teams. At this stage, a guest player was invited to join the team for the live finals in The Grand Casino Barcelona. With the rest of the team having done all the hard work to get to this stage, I was lucky enough to get the invitation to round off the Irish team and headed off to Spain for a five night, all expenses paid, trip. I want to thank team captain, Daniel Bolton and my team mates, Noel Peare, Derek Murray and Joe Connelly for putting up with me. The atmosphere and camaraderie among all the teams was great and everybody seemed to have a really good time. There was, of course, the serious side of things, in the form of $250,000 in prize money up for grabs. After five qualifying heats and a final table of four, all recorded for television, the destination of the World Cup was decided. I will be doing a full report for next month’s edition of the magazine.
In the meantime, I must thank the people from Poker Stars involved in organising the whole event, for the invitation and for looking after everyone so well, throughout the tournament. I, for one, will treasure the memory of the whole experience.

Irish Open 2008

Paddy Power has announced some initial details of next year’s event. They are certainly thinking big by planning for two first days with a capacity of 1,000 players. Considering last years record numbers, who would bet against them achieving this milestone number. My only concern is the increase in the buy in to €4,500. The cost of playing in the Irish Open has trebled in the last five years. Although there are plenty of opportunities to qualify via live and online satellites, I wonder how many regular Irish players will feel priced out of next year’s event. I appreciate that the higher numbers and increased entry fee translate into ever bigger prize pools which is all good. However, I know a number of regular players who struggled to find the funds required for the 2007 Open. For 2008, is the Irish Open really “open” to all the Irish players who should be participating in Ireland’s premier poker event?

WSOP 2007 Reflections - Part 2

By Mick McCloskey

I made it over to Las Vegas this year and played in the main event, thanks to some very generous sponsorship from a couple of shareholders in Dublin’s Fitzwilliam Card Club. On the flight over from London I spotted a few guys busily reading various “How to win Texas Hold’em tournaments” type books. I was assuming they were on their way to play the WSOP main event and wondered if perhaps they were leaving it a little late for studying. After playing in the event, I can report that some players could have done with extra lessons as the standard of play of a few of the players I came across can only be described as woeful. That’s not to say that I did anything wonderful. After a bad start, I managed to get through day 1 but day 2 saw the end for me. My first tournament attempt had a better outcome as I managed to take down the WSOP Media invitational event, winning $10,000 for my chosen charity, a rather nice trophy and bragging rights in the WSOP Press room for the rest of my trip.
Harrahs continue to extract as much money out of the WSOP brand as they can. Anything vaguely related to poker was sold off to the highest bidder, including rights for the official WSOP poker water and the official WSOP peanut, for God’s sake! In the gift shop, official WSOP programmes were selling for $10 plus tax and a short sleeve cotton shirt could be had for $80 plus tax. In contrast, Binions used to send out the WSOP programme, free of charge, to everyone on their mailing list.

No big Irish interest in the latter stages of the main event this year. The highest placed local was Sylvester Geoghegan who took 122nd place for $58,570. Sylvester also picked up $30,992 for 13th spot in the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha tournament, carrying on his good form from the Macau Club festival in June.
2005 final table star, Andy Black made two WSOP final tables this year and narrowly missed out on a third, placing 11th in a PLO event.
I had the pleasure of personally congratulating Ireland’s two latest bracelet winners while in Vegas. Well done again to Ciaran O’Leary and Alan Smurfit.

WSOP 2007 Reflections - Part 1

By Mick McCloskey

A poor working man started to hear voices in his head. The voice said “Quit your job, sell up everything you own and move to Las Vegas” At first he ignored the voice but it refused to go away and continued to torment him. He finally gave in and did as the voice suggested. Now in Las Vegas, the voice began to tell him “Go to the World Series of Poker and buy into the main event.” As he had followed previous instructions, he did as the voice suggested and bought into the main event. On the first day of the tournament, he sat down at the poker table and picked up his first hand, two black Aces. After a raise and a re-raise before it got to him, the voice said, “Push in all your chips.” The man did as the voice suggested and he got one caller. The flop came 10, J, Q, all hearts. The voice said “Ooohhh ****!!!!!!

Talking about the WSOP, news of a few good results for Irish players have come through. Ciaran O’Leary, originally from Co. Cork, but now living in the USA, bested a mammoth field of 2,998 in the $1,500 NLH event no.3 to take down the top prize of $727,012 and a WSOP bracelet.
Alan Smurfit, a member of the family who own the famous K Club in Kildare, won Event no.33, the $1,500 plus re-buy Pot Limit Omaha tournament. Alan came through a field of 293 to take the gold bracelet and $464,867.
In event no. 35, Michael Trimby, from N. Ireland took 5th place in the $1,500 NLH tournament for $109,214. Congratulations and well done to all three. Hopefully, there will be more Irish success stories before it is all over.

Titbits From Cork - Summer 2007

By Mick McCloskey

Although tournament poker can be a serious business, the social side attached to it can throw up some lighter moments. Here are a few from the recent festival at The Macau Club in Cork. Funnily enough, they all relate to local bars, in one way or another.
The first happened in broad daylight, before any alcohol consumption had taken place, when a group of mostly English players went to look for a hostelry where they could get a spot of lunch. On being told that the lunch service had just finished and that the evening service had not yet begun, the group turned and left to find somewhere else. One unfortunate player, who shall remain nameless, save to say that he might have some furry relations residing on Wimbledon Common, failed to notice a metal bollard at the edge of the pavement just outside the pub and managed to collide with it , at just under waist height. As he ended up bent double in severe pain in a very tender area of his anatomy, he got very little sympathy from his companions or from passers by, who laughed and applauded at his predicament. I think he recovered, although he seemed to be walking a bit funny for the rest of his visit.
Another little incident seemed to amuse some of the players who heard about it, which seemed to include just about every body. I was in a pub close to the club one night when I ran into Michael Greco and local player Kieran “Flipper” Walsh. The two lads were discussing the very serious business of whether the very pretty girl sitting at the bar with her boyfriend, had hair extensions or not. A wager was agreed upon, I was handed the money to hold and I agreed to go and find out the answer to this important question. An innocent enough proposition I thought to myself as I approached the couple at the bar. I had got as far as saying “Excuse me, I’m sorry to interrupt, but,” when the boyfriend glared ominously at me and growled “I would advise you to just walk away….now.” I need no second invitation, so the answer to the vexed question never was found.
After the final of the main event, I found myself in the bar of the local hotel, where most of the visiting players were staying, helping to celebrate with some of the money winners. As it was after regular pub opening hours, the barman was being pretty strict about serving hotel residents only. To this end, he had a list of residents’ names and room numbers and was checking through the list as people ordered a drink. One of the guests was none other than Ken Doherty, former World Snooker Champion and one of Irelands best known sports stars, celebrating his 5th place finish in the main event. As Ken went to order a drink, the assembled company were amused as the barman asked for his room number. We were even more amused when Ken gave his room number and the barman then said “And your name?” I think the barman caught on fairly quickly as Ken was soon surrounded by numerous female admirers looking for his autograph and for photographs with him. I’m not quite sure how Michael Greco, who was also in the company, felt about all this as he went unrecognised and ignored by all the female fans!

Finally, I wonder how long we will have to wait to again have two Irish born, Irish Open Champions in the same year (2007). Congratulations to Padraig Harrington (golf) and Marty Smyth (poker) the current Irish Open title holders.

Las Vegas Trip - April 2007

By Mick McCloskey

I have just got back from a trip to Las Vegas where things are for ever changing. New hotel towers are under construction at The Wynn and Venetian casinos and, when completed, will make The Venetian the world’s biggest hotel. That is until some other Strip property goes one bigger.
I stayed Downtown, where the pace of change is a little less noticeable. Binion’s has been spruced up a little but remains essentially the same. Across the road, some major renovations have taken place at The Golden Nugget, including a brand new poker room. You can also take the opportunity to play with the sharks or swim with the fishes, literally. New at the Nugget is a giant tank containing sharks and various varieties of fish. You can actually enter the tank by sliding through a long Perspex tube under the water, past the sharks and out the other side.
Over in Binions, it is surprising who you can run into playing in the small daily tournaments. I had just taken my seat for the start of the $10K guaranteed event when I noticed a familiar face approaching my table. It was none other than 2005 WSOP Pot Limit Hold’em Champion Brian “The Rookie” Wilson. I first met Brian in October 2005 when we sat beside each other all day at one of the support events for that year’s EPT tournament in Dublin. Now here we were again at the same table, with some poor guy stuck between us having to listen to all the chat going on from both sides. Also playing the event was legendary WSOP tournament supervisor John “Schof” Sheffield. I introduced the two guys to each other during the first break and eventually found the pair of them waiting for me at the bar when I got eliminated from the tournament. The following day’s hangover told its own tale about what happened next!
Brian was in town to play in a WSOP Circuit event in Caesars Palace and also to do some commentary work when he was eliminated. He also told me that he was planning to spend about a year living in England so that he could play on the European circuit for a while. Brian has a lot of friends among European players, including his mentor, Dave Colclough. I look forward to meeting up with Brian again during his European tour.
I also shared a couple of tables in Binions with another WSOP star, namely Leif Force, who finished 11th in the 2006 main event, cashing out for over 1 million dollars. Leif, who was also playing the circuit event at Caesars, told me that one of the first places he ever played live was Binions and that he has a soft spot for the old place and likes to play there when he can. He impressed me as a very nice guy and a very good poker player, cashing in both the tournaments I saw him in.
Moving onto bigger things, I managed a visit to the Bellagio to take in the final stages of the $25K buy-in WPT main event. The winner was ex WSOP Champion Carlos Mortensen with Finland’s Thomas Wahlroos placing 7th. England’s Roland de Wolfe also produced another fine performance, finishing in the top 30.

New Owner for WSOP?

As many of you may know, Harrahs has been taken over by a couple of large US finance and capital investment firms. Rumour has it round Las Vegas that the new owners are interested in selling off parts of their new acquisition and that Jack Binion is currently in negotiation with the owners to buy the Rio Casino and the rights to run the WSOP from 2008 on. This would be an excellent result for poker players everywhere, should it happen, as many were not impressed by Harrah’s’ stewardship of the WSOP. For the WSOP to return to Jack Binion, whose connection with poker is legendary, would be a dream come true for many. Watch this space for further developments.

The Perfect Hand?

By Mick McCloskey

Every now and then a hand of cards comes along which virtually plays itself to a successful conclusion. Unfortunately, these hands don’t seem to occur very often and the rest of the time poker players have a lot of difficult decisions to make in the course of a session. I remember one such hand. I have been travelling to Las Vegas for a long time to the WSOP, since first being introduced to the tournament in 1987 by Terry Rogers and Liam Flood. I have never considered myself a “high roller” but that was the sort of treatment we got in those far off days. In the early to mid 90’s I used to play a lot of cash games in The Horseshoe to try to build up a bankroll for satellites and tournaments. In those days the dominant cash game was limit hold’em, a game I didn’t particularly like nor was particularly good at. There were certainly no 1-2 or 2-5 no limit games to be had in those days like there are now in virtually every card room in Vegas. Any no limit games at Binions were of the mega big variety. My alternative was to play in the regular 4-8 or 10-20 limit Omaha, high only, game. The game allowed a bet and four raises on each round and, if all four raises went in, the pot was described as being “capped” Anyway, I eventually found a hand that looked pretty good. I held AAKJ with the KJ being suited, let’s say Diamonds. The pre flop betting was capped and the flop came out 9, 10, Q rainbow, giving me the nut straight. The betting was capped again, with about five or six players still involved. The turn card was the Ace of Diamonds, which still gave me the nut straight but with a couple of redraws. Nut flush draw with the KJ and top set just in case the board paired. Oh joy, the betting was capped again, with no folders. Whatever they were drawing to, or had, they were all getting a price to remain in the pot. A friend of mine was sitting behind me, sweating this hand. I turned to him and whispered “If I lose this pot I am never going to play poker again.” Tempting Fate you may say. I don’t remember what the river card was but I do remember having to stack chips for the next 10-15 minutes! There were chips everywhere. As I said before, it’s not often that a hand like this comes along. I still seem to be waiting for a repeat performance, hopefully this time in a juicy pot limit game. Mmmm.

The Fickle Finger and Bouncers Poker

By Mick McCloskey

The Fickle Finger

I’ve written before in this column about how fate may affect the outcome of events in your life, including your poker life. Most of the previous articles related to good outcomes. My latest brush with fate did not turn out so good.
I set off from home to drive to Dublin for the last Irish EPT event. On the way, I had to pass through a toll plaza on the motorway, something I have done many times before. One of the lanes led to a coin basket, with no cashier on duty. You throw your money in and carry on through the barrier. At least that is what’s supposed to happen. I had exactly the right change; I threw it into the basket and waited for the barrier to open. Nothing! I tried to get out of the car to check if one of the coins had stuck in the basket. I was too close to the wall so I could not get the car door open. I then had to manoeuvre the car to a position where I could open the door to get out. No joy. The basket was empty, having eaten all my money. A quick look on the ground for stray coins produced nothing. By this time a line of impatient motorists had built up behind me and now they were stuck as well! I now had to start searching the car for more coins so that I could get out the metal cage I now found myself in. Coins found, I fed a couple more to the basket so I could make my escape. Thankfully, it let me through this time.
I drove on to Dublin with a bad feeling in my heart. Needless to say, every thing I touched that weekend turned to dust.

Another story on the subject of fate. This time the outcome is open to some conjecture. On a recent visit to the Northern Lights poker tournament in Blackpool, I ran into my old friend “Mad” Marty Wilson. We had both been knocked out of that day’s tournament so we were having a drink at the casino bar with a guy called Billy, a part time stand up comedian and panto performer. It had gone 11 pm when another casualty from the tournament joined us. This was none other than The Devilfish himself, making a rare appearance on the UK poker scene. Dave suggested that we all head into town for a drink and, as we had no other plans, it was all agreed. As we picked ourselves up and headed for the exit, who should walk into the casino but Dave’s girlfriend, who he obviously hadn’t included in his plans. A quick about turn and the whole outing was abandoned.
I have often wondered since what could have been that night. Not only was Billy a stand up comic, but Marty and Dave could have held their own in that department as well. What sort of night would we have had? Where would we have gone? What would have happened? What sort of joint would we have ended up in? Answers on a postcard to Poker Europa please!

Bouncers Poker

I played recently in Barcelona in a tournament that started online and finished with the last 45 playing it out live. Players from various parts of the world qualified and I met some interesting people. One, who had probably travelled the furthest, was a young man called Jimmy, who had come all the way from New Zealand. Jimmy was telling me of an interesting form of poker which exists in his neck of the woods. It is called Bouncers Poker and is played as normal except for the novel rule that, if someone puts a bad beat on you, you are entitled to put a beat on him, literally! Yes, if he cracks your Aces, you can take out your frustration by physically attacking him! All part of the game. Jimmy tells me that he has been on both sides of the beating many times. Mind you, I would not fancy putting a bad beat on Jimmy in this game. He is a big strong lad and would not look out of place in a rugby scrum. It’s an interesting concept though!

Irish Eyes Smiling

By Mick McCloskey

I recently (October 2006) had the honour of being invited to play for Ireland in a heads up team challenge match against Great Britain. The whole event was held to raise funds for the charities Poker4charity and The One Percent Pledge. The Irish team was sponsored by Green Joker Poker and the GB team was sponsored by VCPoker. The event was held in the luxurious Opera House Casino in Scarborough. This place has no less than three bars, open all hours. We got the feeling that the GB team were trying to knobble us with the ready availability of the alcoholic refreshments. Not shy about taking up the challenge, the Irish team made full use of the bar facilities on the first night. Even though the heads up matches were played the following afternoon, the GB tactic backfired, as the Irish team emerged victorious. Despite going 3-1 down in the early stages, the best of 11 matches effectively ended 6-4 to the Irish. Although the final match between the two team captains, Mike Lacey and James Dempsey was played out, the outcome was academic. For the record, the final score was 6-5 to Ireland. This result was sweet revenge for the Irish, who had to endure an 8-3 defeat in the first challenge match in Dublin, earlier this year.
Roy Houghton and his lovely wife, Denise, were on hand to present the magnificent crystal trophy, named in honour of Roy, for his 45 years of service to the poker industry in Britain. Roy was instrumental in running tournament poker in Britain over many years, introducing new ideas such as the double chance and the grand prix format, as well as being involved in setting up and running the first Poker Million tournament in The Isle of Man in 2000. Despite having endured ill health, Roy is still involved in the poker boom and is currently involved in setting up a new poker club in London, where players will pay an annual membership fee, rather than paying rake and tournament registration fees.
After accepting the trophy, Irish captain Mike Lacey said “Last time the result did not reflect the quality of the play. This time, the heart and passion of the Irish team reaped the rewards that were deserved.”
Thanks must go to the two sponsors and to the Opera House Casino for looking after both teams so well. A special mention for Gary and Julie, the card room supervisors, who worked so hard all weekend to make sure all the events ran smoothly. Indeed, I think Julie, with Dublin connections, was secretly rooting for the Irish team. Even GB team member, J.P. Kelly, was keeping his options open by claiming dual nationality!

Lethal Weapon/Exit

By Mick McCloskey

In these days of heightened airport security, it seems you have to be careful what you take on board for reading material. According to The Irish Daily Mirror, top Irish poker pro, Padraig Parkinson ended up being questioned at gunpoint on a recent trip through Beauvais Airport, near Paris, when airport staff mistook his poker book for a bomb manual. He was carrying a copy of Dan Harrington’s Hold’em book in his hand luggage when he was called aside for a security check. The routine check almost turned into an international incident when the security lady decided to flick through the pages of Harrington on Hold’em. The book contains lots of diagrams of a poker table that take the form of numbered circles all nicely connected up. “The security girl jumped about a foot in the air when she saw these diagrams and shouted some instructions in French.” says Padraig. “Within seconds a guy with a machine gun, who looked like he was just itching to use it, was at my side. After a while I gathered that they had decided that the diagrams were not a make-your-own-bomb recipe, and that he wasn’t allowed to shoot me just yet” He added, “I bumped into Dan Harrington at the WSOP and told him his book had got me into a lot of trouble, and should come with a warning that it should not be carried as hand luggage when travelling. Instead of sympathising and apologising for all the hassle, Dan just burst out laughing. I don’t know if he’d have laughed as much if I had told him I still hadn’t read his damn book!”

Lethal Exit

I was talking to Joe “The Show” O’Neill about his exit from the 2006 WSOP main event. Playing the second last hand of the day, just after getting into the money positions, everyone at the table virtually agreed that the only hand they would be playing now would be Aces. Despite this, Joe faced a 20K raise into his stack of just over 30K. Looking down at the pocket rockets, Joe moved the rest of his stack in, virtually telling his opponent what he had. The raiser, with a stack of over 100K, still felt obliged to call with his pocket 6’s. Joe’s heart sank when he say a 6 on top of the flop. Then the cards were spread and it was celebration time when another A appeared. This turned into total despair when the guy hit his one out and made four 6’s. To rub salt into the wound, Joe had to return to the table to shake hands and congratulate his opponent, for the assembled cameras.
For the maths experts among you, Joe reckons that the odds of this sequence of events happening, under these unique circumstances, were about 650,000 to 1. Talk to Joe about the math, as it is way beyond me.

If you have any news, views or events you can contact me by email to mickymccloskey@hotmail.com

Tournament Payouts

By Mick McCloskey

I understand that there has been some discussion lately about tournament payout structures so I may as well add my two pence worth to the debate.
There are basically two schools of thought. Those who think that the present top heavy structures are fine and those who think that a flatter payout would do away with most of the deal making that currently takes place in tournament poker. It is not unusual to see five or six way deals being done at many of the major festival events in Europe these days.
I would be included in the second school of thought but perhaps would go even further down the road of flatter payouts. I know many top European pros who have done well in tournaments and have accumulated plenty of prize money and ranking points but could end up making no money at the end of the year because of tournament entries and travelling and accommodation expenses. I would say that there are very few players, if any, who make a living from tournament poker alone. While one major outright win a year would probably solve this problem, achieving this outcome in reality is an enormous task. Sometimes, even getting to play in a major event is an accomplishment for many, non sponsored pros.
I would suggest that poker players could do worse than look at the way things are done on the pro golf tours. At each tournament the top 40%-50% of the field qualify for the last two rounds and all qualifiers are paid. This should ensure that even those at the bottom of payout structure will cover their expenses for that particular event. I am not suggesting that the same percentages should be used in poker but I would suggest that, in two day events, anyone who has to return for the second day should be paid. After all, any player involved will have additional travel or accommodation expenses, at the very least. A structure like this would help to keep the more consistent players on the tournament trail active and help to ensure that there is always a nucleus of travelling players who can support the many festivals now scheduled every year.
Whether this model can ever be achieved, I don’t know. What I do know is that it would first need the formation of a union or association to represent the players in Europe and that would be the subject of a whole different debate.

Poker for all. New Year - 2006

By Mick McCloskey

Another year has slipped by and, for some people, it’s the time to reflect on what has happened in the previous twelve months and to make plans, and perhaps resolutions, for the coming year.
My own reflections on the past year include my meeting a guy in Las Vegas a few days before the start of the main event of the World Series of Poker. His name was Billy Rockwell. I had entered a small no limit tournament in Binion’s (Horseshoe) Casino and had taken my seat for the start of the event when Billy turned up to take the seat beside me. The first thing to grab my attention was that Billy had only one, apparently lifeless, arm. This observation was borne out when his girlfriend proceeded to remove Billy’s shoe and sock. He planned to play cards using his toes! As the game started, it was obvious that Billy had done this many times before. He had a large coin or medallion which he placed on his hole cards, for protection. He also had a little wooden wedge which he placed up against the edge of the table. He was then able to push his cards, one at a time with his toes, up the wedge so that he could peek at the corner of the card, without exposing them to the other players. He was able to do all this while remaining seated in his chair. He was also able to separate and put his chips into the pot using only his toes.
We got talking and he told me that he had almost died in a motorcycle accident when he was a teenager. The result of the accident was the loss of one arm and total disability in the other one. He was wearing a branded shirt and cap and, it turned out, that he had obtained sponsorship, from an internet poker site, to play in the WSOP main event. A shrewd move by the sponsor as Billy was almost guaranteed media coverage whether he did any good in the tournament or not. This was borne out when I was reminded of our meeting when I was watching the television coverage of the WSOP recently. There was Billy getting his 15 minutes of fame on network tv. He had managed to make it through the first day before getting knocked out on day 2. Not a bad achievement considering the huge field he had to survive. It was an achievement in the first place that he could overcome his physical disability to play the game at all. I have seen other Billys, mostly in the USA, who have overcome enormous physical odds to sit, or in some cases lie, down at a poker table to play and compete in the game we all love. So the next time you are tempted to whinge about a bad beat, or have to listen to one, just think about Billy and others like him. It might put the whole thing into perspective. And just remember that Billy, I’m sure, has his share of bad beats. His consolation is probably the fact that he is in a position to be there at all, to take them.

Tales from Europe - 2005

By Mick McCloskey

Here's a little competition for you, and there is an Irish connection to at least one of the tales.

WHO were the poker players who got arrested on the way home from a poker tournament in Russia? Apparently there are certain rules and regulations relating to bringing currency in and out of Russia. As I understand it, you are supposed to declare to Customs on entering the country the amount of money you are carrying and you are only allowed to take a small amount of winnings out of the country in cash.
Now a couple of the guys had done all right in the game and were carrying a large wad of US Dollars. After they had checked their bags in at the airport, they were challenged by a number of Russian officials about the cash. They were given a choice. Either spend a couple of days in jail before going on trial, and maybe face a prison sentence, or pay a “fine” on the spot and carry on home. The fine demanded was $10,000 per head but the guys managed to negotiate a discount before they paid up and went on their way. True story, so if you are going to play poker in Russia, you have been warned.

WHO were the two two poker players who set off on their journey to play in the Amsterdam Classics and found that they were a day late for their flight? Luckily there were some spare seats on the flight so, after paying another airfare, they were on their way. However, their troubles were not over. When they arrived at the hotel they had booked they had already been charged for the previous night and the room had been re-let. No other rooms were available so they had to search for another hotel which could accommodate them. Needless to say, neither of the two figured in any of the poker tournament results. At least the intrepid travellers managed to catch the right flight home.

WHO was the poker player who got locked in the shower for two hours in his hotel room in Amsterdam? The guy went to take a shower and closed the cubicle door which had a small latch or catch. When he had finished his shower, he could not get the shower door open. After about two hours of shouting and trying to force the door, both in vain, the latch finally opened after, apparently having dried out. The very cold and hoarse player had some choice words with the hotel management but we at Poker Europa are not privy to the outcome of his demands for compensation.
If you can name all the players involved, you could win a small prize. However, only entries submitted to Poker Europa on the back of a 20 £ / € / $ note will be considered.

Mr.Nosey

By Mick McCloskey

The following story happened in the U.K. but it could have been anywhere.
Mr. Nosey, hereafter referred to as Mr. N, turned up at the poker room to play in a big poker tournament. Having registered, he found his table and sat down. As the tournament got underway, the table filled up apart, from the one seat to the immediate right of Mr. N. As the tournament progressed, Mr. N found nothing but unplayable hands. His own cards that is. However, living up to his name, after mucking his own cards, he would have a peek at the cards in the empty seat before mucking them. After almost every pot, Mr. N would announce that the missing player would have won the hand with big pocket pairs, AK suited, AQ suited, whatever it took. The missing player would have been on a major rush if only he had turned up to play his cards. This went on for about half an hour or so until the missing player eventually turned up. He looks around the table, looks at his seat card, looks around the table again, taps Mr. N on the shoulder and announces “Excuse me, I think you are sitting in my seat.” DOH!!!! The moral to the story is to always check you are in the right seat and, just in case you are not, never look at a missing player’s hole cards.

Mile High Club

By Mick McCloskey

A Dublin couple, identified only as Eamonn and Willow, have developed their own version of the mile high club-the mile high poker club. On a flight from Dublin to Malta for their honeymoon, the newly weds passed the time with a game of Texas Hold ‘em, as you do. The fact that they had left their own deck of cards in the hold luggage, and that the flight crew could not supply a deck, did not deter them in the least. The pair were not going to be beaten by such a small technicality. With the aid of a couple of pens and pieces of paper, the couple set about inventing their own version of the game. It works something like this. One person writes down their two hole cards while the other writes down the flop, turn and river. Whoever hits the most hands wins. What they used for chips or what the eventual prize for the winner turned out to be, only the happy couple know.

Skinny dipping and mistaken idenity at WSOP 2005

By Mick McCloskey

WSOP 2005

This column could be subtitled “The Irish in Las Vegas” as there were plenty of great performances and stories to come out of the WSOP this year. Pride of place goes, of course, to Andy Black who took home $1.75 million for 5th place in the main event. Andy also picked up an early $25K for 10th spot in Event No.6, the £2,500 NLH freezeout and a further $8,490 in the $5,000 NLH event. A man on form, or what!
Another great performance came from Conor Tate, originally from Lurgan in N.Ireland, who placed 12th in the main event for a payday of $600,000. Conor qualified online and this seems to be the first time he has cashed in any ranking tournament anywhere. What a great way to start.
Eamon Grimes, from Donaghmore in Co. Tyrone, will long remember his trip to the WSOP. Another internet qualifier, Eamon cashed for $24,365 in the big one. Having only ever played live at his local pub, Eamon found himself playing at the featured television table with some of the stars of poker, including “The Professor” Howard Lederer. Eamon remained unfazed by all the attention and managed to move up from being the short stack on the bubble to take 267th spot.
Other Irish who cashed out in the main event were Stephen Dunphy, Michael O’Sullivan and Anthony Fagan.
Another big result came from Martin Green who cashed twice in the WSOP. He took 4th place, from a field of 1,071, in the $1,500 buy-in NLH for $88,680 and picked up a further $10,085 for 18th in the $2,500 buy-in NLH event. Others to cash out included Patrick O’Connor from Dublin and Zeik Tuit from Cork. Oh, and I nearly forgot, yours truly came 3rd out of the 245 media people and celebrities who took part in the WSOP Charity Tournament.
Congratulations to all the Irish players who cashed at the WSOP and, if I have missed anyone, please let me know.

SKINNY DIPPING

Away from the green baize Las Vegas has plenty to occupy idle hands, or other parts of the body for that matter. One of the attractions to tempt the Irish contingent was a 4th July house party and barbeque hosted by Jesse May. Jesse, along with his wife Micki and the crew from The Poker Show, had rented an up-market property on the outskirts of Las Vegas, for the duration of the WSOP. A shuttle bus was laid on from the Rio casino to the house and most of the Irish in town, along with a few other nationalities, managed to arrive for the free booze and the USA size T-Bone steaks. Despite the fact that Roy “The Boy” Brindley was left in charge of the barbeque, the food turned out to be pretty good. I think that Jesse may have had an ulterior motive for the party as the cameras were running and the microphones were live for most of the night. Nobody seemed to mind however and the food and drink probably tempered any stage or camera fright there might have been. As the fireworks flashed and exploded in the night sky, the alcohol intake seemed to reduce some other inhibitions among the assembled guests. It could have been the heat of the desert air or the attraction of the cool blue water in the pool, but some of the guys decided that a swim was on the agenda and the lack of bathing trunks was not going to be a problem. Whether the cameras caught the ensuing action or not, I really don’t know. Only time will tell. It’s amazing some of the footage that turns up on the internet or on video clip tv shows these days.

MISTAKEN IDENTITY

On the subject of parties, the ever elegant Hendon mobster, Joe Beevers held a small champagne reception in a suite in The Golden Nugget a few days before his marriage to Claire. Family, friends and some stragglers still in town at the end of the WSOP were invited. As the night wore on, some of the guests moved from the suite to one of the bars downstairs in the casino. This move took place partly because there was no smoking allowed in the suite. Anyhow, Padraig Parkinson’s beautiful French partner, Veronique, was at the bar chatting to some friends when Padraig arrived down from the party. Padraig spotted a young lady with long dark hair sitting at the bar beside a couple of blonde girls, who had also been at the party, so he walked up to the bar and grabbed her from behind. Now I don’t know if it was the effect of the champagne or if Padraig’s eyesight is getting worse, but the young lady that he grabbed was a complete stranger! A very embarrased Padraig only managed to avoid getting thrown out of the casino by finding Veronique and explaining to the young lady how the two girls looked similar from behind, despite the fact that they were dressed completely differently. You’re going to have to pay more attention to what Veronique is wearing in future Padraig. Either that or an eye test!
Best wishes to Joe and Claire for the future.
Another poker wedding took place in Vegas during the WSOP. Best wishes to renowned tournament director Thomas Kremser and dealer Marina for their future.

Alan Betson left speechless

By Mick McCloskey

Anyone who knows Alan will consider the above headline to be extremely unlikely. Alan is well known for his quick wit and the ability to come up with the perfect quip or put down for any situation. However, I’m told that he may have met his match, in the form of a Dublin taxi driver, recently. Alan was on his way to a tournament in Europe and was running a little late for his flight from Dublin airport. When his cab turned up to take him to the airport, Alan recognised the driver as a well known part time debt collector and enforcer for a local bookmaker. Now, if this guy turned up at your door, you would be more than happy to pay off your debts immediately and maybe less than happy if you did not. The man had arms on him like tree trunks with some very nice tattoos to match. So Alan requests an extra quick drive to the airport, so he could catch his flight. However , the driver happens to be in a very talkative mood that day and proceeds to regale Alan with tales of his latest debt collection exploits and what he did to who and what he intended to do to his next “client “who refused to pay up. The more this guy talked, the slower the progress of the cab towards the airport. The upshot was that Alan missed his flight and had to pay quite a bit extra to get onto the next available flight. Despite this setback, he thought discretion might be the better part of valour and he managed to keep his lip buttoned, and his thoughts to himself, as he meekly paid his cab fare. I would imagine that he even managed to reward the driver with a nice tip for his services!!

Hand of the Month

by Mick McCloskey

A certain American poker pro. used to write a “Hand of the month” column in a U.S. magazine, usually extolling the virtues of his play in a certain situation, or explaining his latest bad beat story. Here is my take on the same subject, which could be subtitled, “ The luck of the desperate” (or the luck of the stupid). I was playing in a no limit hold’em tournament in Belfast’s Cavendish Club. The buy-in was £100 with one rebuy allowed. We were down to the final four players and were all in the money, but no deals had been made.
Consequently, everyone was playing pretty tight and solid. I was the short stack and the other three were pretty much even in chips. The blinds were 3k-6k and I was first to act. As my previous dozen or so raises (with premium hands I might add) had all been uncontested, I decided to try to steal the blinds, so I moved all in for 26k with the computer hand, Q7 offsuit. My timing could not have been worse. Dominic, on the button called immediately, with AQ. Even worse, Richard, on the small blind, raised all in for an extra 35k, with pocket 9’s. Now Darren, on the big blind, looks at his cards and he also finds a big hand, pocket J’s. O woe is me. What are the odds against me winning this pot. I seem to be drawing pretty much dead. Darren does the sensible thing and folds the best hand. Dominic calls the extra 35k and we see the flop. It comes Q x x. The turn is another blank and Richard and me are about ready to go collect our winnings when, lo and behold, a miracle 7 comes on the river! From the out house to the penthouse, I now find myself chip leader. Talk about doing the wrong thing at the right time! What a stupid game! But I suppose that’s what keeps us coming back for more. No matter how bad things look, there’s always hope.
We played a few more hands, without much chip movement, before I decided, (being the generous guy that I am), to give the lads a three way split. Well, it seemed only fair after the great escape!

Fintan Gavin - Profile

By Mick McCloskey

I recently had the opportunity to talk to Fintan Gavin, founder and master of ceremonies of the VC Poker sponsored Irish Poker Tour.
37 year old Fintan was born in Dublin but his family moved to Galway in the late 1970’s. He now runs his own transport business there and is married to Fiona.
Fintan explained that he had been brought up in a card playing family, as indeed many Irish families are. His mother was big into the card game 25’s and he recalls starting to play draw poker at the age of 10 or 11. He started to play hold’em about three years ago and got totally hooked on the game, playing mostly online, because there was really no live alternative in the west of Ireland. Soon after he got married he went to Las Vegas and played some there and he now travels to the odd tournament in England and Amsterdam. He went to a few charity events around Galway but says that these were generally poorly run and were not the real deal. As far as he was concerned, they were not a good experience for any decent poker player. In the absence of any decent events in his area he decided to get off his butt and do something about it. He decided to run his own tournaments. Fintan’s brother has his own events management company and suggested that he should look for sponsorship. He suggested that to run any event properly needed backing and financial support. The idea was to run a series of tournaments, in Galway initially, but also in other parts of Ireland and to take poker out of the casino environment and into a more accessible and, for a lot of people, the more comfortable surroundings of a quality hotel. The idea clicked with the people at VC Poker and so the Irish Poker Tour was born. The tour consists of a series of small buyin satellites, and regional super satellites which will culminate in July when the final 16 qualifiers will battle it out, in front of the TV cameras, for a prize pool of €100,000, as well as a £5,000 entry to the VC Cup, for the winner. Bringing poker to the people.
Fintan has future plans for more provincial qualifying events, leading to an all Ireland tournament and the possibility of an Irish poker team to compete in international team events. He hopes that, with the support of the general poker community, he can establish provincial and inter-provincial events, to bring the cream of Irish players to the top and also to involve Irish players based overseas, in the establishment of an Irish team. He wants to bring tournament poker to the general public in a form where it can be recognised more as a sport than as gaming. He has even gone as far as applying to the Irish Sports Council for official recognition, but feels he is knocking his head against a brick wall there. But at least he is knocking.
Fintan paid tribute to the generous sponsorship of VC Poker and to the sound advice of seasoned veterans such as Christy Smith of Dublin. He also commended the top class job being carried out by his tournament director, Donal MacAonaghusa and his hard working assistant Richard Nielson.
We, at Poker Europa, wish to commend Fintan on his hard work and initiave so far, and to wish him every success for his future plans for Irish Poker.
For further information on the Irish Poker Tour log onto www.pokerevents.ie or call 091 799990.

FATE?

Following on from my stories about poker fate and coincidence in the March edition of Poker Europa, I had another experience recently. I had just set out from home to drive to Dublin to play in the Fitzwilliam Pokerfest. I had just turned onto the main road when a black cat ran straight across the road in front of me. Now I’ve always been told that this is a sign of good luck, so I felt pretty good about it. So good that I went on to win the tournament that night. Is it just me or what? Anyone know where I can get a black cat?



Rules
I recently played in the Blackpool Bonanza. This was an excellent and generally well run event. However I found one ruling a little odd. A new player came to an empty seat from a broken table. He was the last player to come from the broken table and most of the other players from that table had already found their new seats. He sat down in the big blind position but, it was ruled that, as the blinds had already been posted, although no cards had been dealt, he was allowed to sit out both his big blind and his small blind. This then meant he had a full round of deals before he was forced to put a chip in the pot. Can this be right?

If you have any news, views or event details, you can contact me by email to mickymccloskey@hotmail.com

A little bit of history

By Mick McCloskey

Did you know that Ireland was the first European country to introduce Texas Hold’em tournaments?
I got to talking with Mick Cook, the veteran English poker pro, at the 2005 Irish Open Tournament in Dublin. Mick is something of a historian when it comes to Irish poker and he tells me that he and fellow English pro Derek Webb played in the very first Irish Open and that he has never missed an Irish Open since. Apart from the quality of the tournament itself, he tells me that he very much appreciates the, always warm, Irish hospitality he receives on his visits here.
This first tournament was a 7 card stud event, run by bookmaker and poker pioneer Terry Rogers in his Irish Eccentric Club in Dublin. He thinks this was held on Good Friday 1981 or 1982 and the buy-in was £500. The following year the game was, for the first time, No Limit Texas Hold’em. From Dublin, Mick took the game to England and introduced it to the punters at The Rainbow Casino in Birmingham and, from Birmingham, to The Victoria Casino in London. He tells me that the first Hold’em games in England were played half pot limit. Mick first went to Las Vegas in 1982/83, where he started to hone his new found Hold’em skills. He also latched onto another new game, which he brought back to England, Pot Limit Omaha.
The real kick start for the game in Ireland and the UK came in 1984, when a group of about 25 American players arrived in Ireland to play The Irish Open at Killiney Castle. This group included the reigning World Series of Poker champion, Tom McEvoy as well as two times World Champion Stu Ungar. Indeed, Stu Ungar proceeded to win the first two events that year. Tom McEvoy won the main event, after a two hour heads up battle with Mick Cook. The whole event attracted widespread TV and press coverage in Ireland and the UK. Mick recalls that the main event had about 45-50 runners and had an entry fee of £1,000.
Among the Irish players in the early years Mick recalls such characters as Terry Rogers, ”Suitcase Johnny”, ”Famous Seamus”, David Jackson, Colette Doherty, Donnacha O’Dea, Sean and Don Fagan, Liam Flood and Jim Langham, an Irish international table tennis player.
Mick was full of praise for the contribution made by Terry Rogers to the development of Poker in Ireland and, eventually in Europe as a whole. He credits Terry for his pioneering efforts in this field. He tells me that Terry gave future WSOP Champion Noel Furlong his first poker lesson. His advice to Noel was to develop a strong right arm so that he could keep pushing the chips in! If there was ever to be an Irish Poker Hall of Fame, he would nominate Terry to be the first member. Indeed, he would put him on a par with Benny Binion, who was actually a friend of Terry Rogers in those early years. He considers both Benny and Terry to be the main founders and promoters of the great game we know as Texas Hold’em.

This and That

By Mick McCloskey

Two lucky lads from Belfast recently won trips to Paris, courtesy of Ladbrokes Poker, to play in The European Hall of Fame Tournament. This is an invitation only event held during the Euro Finals of Poker in the prestigious Aviation Club de France, situated in the heart of Paris on the famous Champs Elysees.The $10,000 event gives internet qualifiers the chance to meet and play live against hall of famers in the grand surrounds of the ACF.Although not all the advertised players made it to Paris the two tables sat down to pit their poker skills against former World Heads Up Champion, Bruno Fitoussi,Hall of Fame founder, Bruce “Elvis Senior” Atkinson and Dave “Devilfish”Ulliot. For a $22 investment, Martin McCabe took home 3,415 euro and, for an outlay of $10 Desi Graham pocketed 1,700 euro. The two will, no doubt, also take away some nice memories of their experience. I’m not sure, but I would be surprised if they didn’t get a song or two, and maybe a duet, from Elvis and the Devilfish. Surprise, surprise, Devilfish ended up winning the tournament. No problem for Dave then, playing internet players.

A word of caution for anyone playing E.P.T.and perhaps some other events. The new Tournament Directors rulebook brings in a couple of rules which could trip some players up. On tables with action lines drawn on them, any chips that cross that line have to remain in the pot. So, if a player lifts a stack of chips to call a bet, puts them across the line and drops off the required chips to call, this action is ruled to be a raise for the whole stack, unless he has verbally announced a call before the chips crossed the line. Quite a few players were caught out by this strictly enforced rule in Deauville and Vienna recently. There is, therefore, no such thing as a string bet once chips cross that line.So, beware, you have been warned. Some of the more astute angle shooters have already misused this rule by pretending to be caught out by the rule, when they are in fact holding a monster hand. This is something which I think, the organisers need to look at. Also beware making any hand or finger movements when it is your turn to act. Such movements may be ruled to be a check.

The Belfast player, formerly known as “Madmax”but who now wishes to be known as “Sanemax”recently had an unfortunate experience online. He was playing cash NLH on Betfair when he picked up AQ hearts on the big blind. Everyone folded except the small blind. The flop comes K,J,10,all hearts! Small blind checks,Max checks. Then the unthinkable happens. The software freezes and the hand is folded.Max immediately contacted Betfair,who to their credit, paid out the Royal Flush bonus of £300.Whether he would have got any action from the other player we will never know. As for the new name? Frankly I am not convinced there has been any change!

Room 114 and two fat ladies

By Mick McCloskey

Is poker success down to skill or luck or is it fate? Or is it a combination of all of these? I had a couple of experiences to suggest that fate may play a part. One of these relates to a trip I made to Barcelona in September 2003 for the Barcelona Open tournament. When I arrived at my hotel I was allocated room 13 on one of the floors (I can’t remember which). I really didn’t think anything of it and carried on with business. Over the next 2 or 3 days I played in various tournaments and satellite games and some cash games. Whatever I played in I couldn’t seem to do anything right. If I had AK against a pair I could never hit. If I had the pair against 2 overcards I could not win. Even if I had AK against an Ace with a smaller kicker the smaller kicker would always hit. After about 3 days of this torture, I decided that my room number might be the problem so I rang down to reception to ask if I could move to a different room. The guy at reception seemed very concerned and asked if there was something wrong with the room. I said no but explained to him that I was playing poker and that the number was unlucky. ”Ahhh”, says he,”I understand” A room change was arranged immediately. A triumph for international customer services in Spain. So, anyway, I entered the main event the next day and proceeded to get a very nice payday with an equal three way split in the tournament. My new room number? 114. Number of players in the main event? 114. Scary or what?


Another similar experience happened in Slovenia about 8 months later. The difference here was that I was running pretty good. I made a final table in one of the tournaments and I won my seat for the main event in a super satellite. The main event was a 2 day affair and I was chip leader when we got down to the final 9 players at the end of day 1. After the chips were counted, the seating draw for the final table took place. The way they do this in Slovenia is that the lowest chip stack draws the first seat and so on down the line. So when it got to me there was only 1 seat left. Table 8, seat 8. Now this sounded quite good to me, as under some Chinese birth sign or other, my lucky number is supposed to be 8. In the final the next day, I never lost the chip lead and when play eventually got heads up I had at least a 3-2 lead. After a bit of play, I picked up a pocket pair on the button. I made a standard raise, only for my opponent to reraise all in. I called and he turned over AQ or AJ. When the dust had settled, he did not improve and my pair held up to win me the tournament. My pocket pair? 88!
Coincidence? Fate? If any of you have had any similar experiences I would be very interested in hearing about them.

Winner, Winner.

By Mick McCloskey

There must have been something in the air in December, or in cyberair at any rate. It so happened that two columnists specialising in Irish poker cashed out two very nice five figure sums on the net. Both wins were in large field multi table tournaments. One of the very happy hacks is yours truly. The other, who writes for some other magazine, is Roy “The Boy” Brindley. As I write, Roy is just back from a holiday in Florida and I am about to head stateside in a couple of days time. O the dull life of the poker writer. Talking about poker writers, maybe you should know that the managing editor is currently in Australia and the editor in the Bahamas. Dull, dull, dull! Dunno who’s gonna edit my copy this month.
Other recent Irish winners include Mike Magee, who won the main event in Luton, and Martin Farranger, who won the £200 PLH rebuy event at the same venue. Further afield, Frank Callaghan picked up 9190 euro in the 50 euro buyin NLH Progressive event. He’s going to have to explain how that works, next time I see him.
Congratulations to all.
Here’s another winner’s tale. There may or not be an Irish connection. I certainly hope not. A little bird tells me that a regular player recently won his first major ranking event on the European tour. As well as picking up a five figure sum in cash, he was presented with a very pretty and unique piece of sculpture. He promptly sold his hard earned trophy, for a paltry sum, to a poker pro, who had cashed in at the final table of the same tournament. The pro in question should not be short of legitimate trophies of his own. I’m not quite sure who is the saddest, the seller or the buyer!

Poker in Ireland

by Mick McCloskey

Ireland has a long history of gambling from the Irish Hospital Sweepstakes, surely one of the first international lotteries, to the Irish love of horse racing and its combination with poker at race meetings, in particular the Galway Races and, of course, the Cheltenham Festival. As regards poker, I’m not quite sure when it was first played in Ireland, but I would hazard a guess, that it was probably during, or shortly after WW2. There were certainly U.S. troops stationed in Northern Ireland near the end of the war and it can be assumed that poker was one of the pastimes employed to while away the hours in places pretty much devoid of any form of organised entertainment. Poker was probably passed on from local contacts and from Irish men who served in the armed forces in Europe and the Far East and would have come into contact with the Americans. It could have also been picked up from the movies of the time and the post war years, when most cowboy films featured saloon scenes with the poker game often being central to the indoor action.
It is generally accepted that it was the Irish who helped introduce Texas Hold ‘em to Europe through the likes of Terry Rogers, Liam Flood and Donnacha O’ Dea, to name but a few of the pioneers. Terry Rogers even organised the Irish Eccentrics Hold’em tournament in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, in the early eighties. Back home at that time, from probably the mid seventies, charity poker tournaments were being held regularly in local hotels and halls, the game being mostly five card draw in the south and five card stud in the north of the country. Being a regular player in the stud tournaments, I was first introduced to Hold’em, probably in 1985 or 1986, when Terry Rogers organised a Hold’em tournament in N. Ireland, the winner receiving a trip to Las Vegas and entry to a support event at the World Series of Poker. I didn’t win the tournament but was fascinated by the W.S.O.P. and swore to myself that I was going to get there some day. I duly did just that, for the first time in 1987, and have been to the U.S.A. every year since. That first trip was a total revelation and I learned a lot in a short space of time. I had to; otherwise I would have gone broke!
Up until the recent explosion of no limit hold’em games around the country, the game was mostly played in a few clubs in Dublin, where the local players took to it like ducks to water. A new breed of player emerged from these clubs ready to take on the world and eventually led to W.S.O.P. titles for Noel Furlong,Donnacha O’Dea,Ciaran O'Leary and Alan Smurfit and numerous W.S.O.P. final tables appearances for other Irish players, such as Scott Gray, Padraig Parkinson, George McKeever, and the 2005 Irish W.S.O.P. star, Andy Black.
On the budding European tour, the Irish were also making their presence felt with Dubliner Aidan Bennett being crowned as the first European rankings champion in 1998 and Belfast born Mike Magee also a prolific winner on tour.
For such a small nation, the Irish have had a significant impact on the world poker scene and, I believe, will continue to do so. There must be something in the Irish character which seems to make them adept at big bet poker. If you had seen 21 year old David O’Callaghan re-raising all in with 7, 2 off suit at the final table of last year’s E.P.T. event in Barcelona, you will know that the future of Irish poker is assured. David finished runner up in that event and can be seen in action on the E.P.T. television coverage.