Tournament In Ireland

Ok, i know its not a 10k event or w/e but this is the biggest tourney iv'e ever played in. Me and best mate flying over to play, anyone else entering by any chance?

http://www.pokerireland.ie/index.php/tournaments/tournament_entry/national_poker_open/

Wish me luck Very Happy

gl dude

TRIP REPORT.

Well, after a whopping 40 minute flight from leeds-bradford to dublin airport at around 11.30PM friday night, i arrived to find out all the currency exchange booths were closed until tomorrow... defo -EV, so obv i have to walk 3 miles in pitch black to find the travel lodge because i have no money for a taxi or the bus... not a good start to the weekend.

Wake up saturday morning and take a few hours to find/walk myself down to the RDS to start playing and my jaw drops when i realise how many players have actually entered- around 1070 from 57 different countries, UK, USA, France, Spain, Finland, Norway, Switzerland.. you name it, they're here.

Naturally i'm tired because i can't sleep before 4am and woke up at 7 so i find a comfy chair and sit down and pretty much fall asleep, shortly awakened by the guy who is supposed to occupy that seat. I apologize and realise the game is about to start and find my seat all the way over at table 35, seat 9. Obv my bad luck continues as we are the only table in the place (100+ tables) that has yet to have chips, cards or a dealer so we miss the first 20 minutes of the 25/50 level . Finally we get the 10,000 chips and a deck of cards, but we are one of the few unlucky tables that gets the honour of having a player/dealer. Luckily a pretty irish lass in seat 6 says she is a professional dealer and offers to deal the game for us, we thank her and get the blinds in and get ready for hopefully 14 hours of solid poker.

Anyway, onto the poker content

I fold the first hand blind because im an idiot and really wanted to raise in MP with ATC but decide i should get a feel for the table first. I think to myself "play solid, DON'T 3-BET NITS, DON'T OVERPLAY DRAWS, DON'T WAIT TILL THE BREAK TO HEAD TO THE TOILETS", anyway, i'm UTG+1 and i look down at 9 9 and raise it up to 150, BB calls. Flop is Q102 rainbow and the action goes check check. The same happens on the turn when a 4 falls down. river is a 6, i get checked to so naturally i valuebet/bluff/bet anyway, get a call and take the pot.

I fold a few hands, then look down at 69 UTG and raise because im a stupid lagtard. BB calls and we see a flop of A86, BB checks, i 2/3 it and get insta-called.. alarm bells ring. The turn is a 3 and again i'm checked to, i fire a blue chip worth 1k and am quickly called. The river pairs the 3 and again i get checked to. I'm a lagtard and as such have to fire 2200 into the decent sized pot that i'm probably going to lose so early at the 25/50 level but opponent folds and i call myself a lucky mofo.

Nothing happens during the rest of the 25/50 level and most of the 50/100 level except i keep raising with junk and c-betting flops, getting raised and folding like a nit. close to the end of the 50/100 level i look down at A10 and make it 350 to go. Button calls and blinds fold. Flop is 228, i fire 700 and button makes it 1700 to go.. i think why the would he raise so little and can't make my mind up whether to fold because he has 2 eights or make it 4000 to go because he has the same hand as me. i get really close to throwing a black chip out (5k) then muck my hand and he shows me A9. I mumble "nh sir" and curse myself for being a wimp.

Half way through the 75/150 level after folding 150 million hands i pick up AK and raise it up to 450 and get re popped to 1000 by the biggest nit at the table, which i reluctantly call. The flop is K92 rainbow, i fire 1200 and get smooth called which makes me feel sick. The turn is a Q, i check and nit bets 1200, i fold, get showed KK and pat myself on the back for a standard laydown

After folding so many hands and losing a few pots, i'm down to around 6500 chips when a badly played hand by me pops up. EP raises to 400 from 150 so i have to call with A8os in the BB. Flop is Q107 and action is check check. turn is a duece and we see the river which comes down an 8. I think about value betting but decide to pick off a bluff from AK and he fires 600 which i call and beat him into the pot and he shows K10 to ship it, i annouce to the table i'm a calling station. I prove this later when i make another misread and decide to call with A high on a seemingly harmless board when opp shows top boat. I muck my hand and smile to myself.

We get a half hour break and i tell my buddy Matt that i'm the biggest fish in the tourney. He agrees and says hes around the same stack anyway. I make it my mission to outlast him.

The tournament annoucer shouts to return to our seats as the action will continue and the blinds get raised to 100/200. I decide to go into super tight mode and fold 15 hands in a row when i look 2 black kings UTG+1. UTG limps, i make it 800 out of my 5500 or so stack to go, folds round and UTG calls. Flop is 259 with 2 hearts and UTG tanks and throws out a black chip which has me covered. Before the chip hits the table, i insta-call and shove my chips into the middle Phil Hellmuth style with the 25 chips on the top of my stack flying all over the table then flip my kings over before he even leans forward to touch his cards because i know they're good. I laugh and apologize and UTG obv shows K10h for the flush draw. I murmer "one time" to myself and see a black 5 hit the turn. I breathe in then breathe out again in discust as a heart hits the river and i'm busto after around only 3 hours into the tourney. I stand up quietly, shake the guys hand and walk away from the table wondering wtf happend. I tell matt i'm busto and head over to the cash games to play some 1-2 till he joins me on the rail, which turns out to not be very long.

I eat the 105th mcdonalds meal of the weekend, grab a ridiculously overpriced pint and head upto the room to watch tv, which is pretty much how the rest of the weekend went. I try to go into town sunday night, only to find out the drinking age is 21.. DUHHHH. So, back to the room for more tv, until monday morning when i fly home.

Overally i'm pleased with the way i played, with some stupid errors and lagtard raises, but i guess that's "lol donkaments" for ya. Hope to play another tournament soon. Thanks for anyone bored enough to read this