Irish Poker, where do we stand?

dagunman

Please ignore spelling grammar etc.
Over the last week I was in San Remo, and had many interesting convo's with ppl regarding Irish poker. I have various feeling, taughts and obsrvations and I wonder what others think. On the way over on the flight I was sitting beside one of Irelands leaing pro's and has been in the scence for a long while. He commenteed that there were only 10 winning online players in Ireland at levels above 5/10 at the start I was like no way but infact he was spot on. Lookin around San Remo there were so many young players around but there were ony 2 of us from Ireland. I was questioning why so few when there was prob a min of 20 from most other countries. What makes it even more surprising is that Irish poker player are rated among the best in Europe.
I think young Irish players have been F***ed over by the Irish based poker sites. Paddy Power and Boyle Sports offer no sponsorship deals to Irish players.(I know boyles just signed marty symth). GPJ are at least trying to change this but they are small, but growing company. When I looked aroundin San Remo all other countries had sites based in there country putting players in. France have winamax, Sweden have betson....... and Greece had a rake of players there all sponsored. These players were good but certainly no better than our standard of player.
Ok Paddy Power stump up big for the IO but considering if they put the $300k overlay into sponsoring 6 young players they would do more for Irish poker and themselves imo.
Next week the Poker Cup of Nations is on. Repersenting Ireland will be the Don, Parky, Liam Flood, Marty and Ciaran O Leary. Not even one player under the age of 25.
My final point why I think we struggle is the lack of good teachers out there. The only coach ppl seem to talk about is Hector Jelly. He is supposed to be very good but I dont think it is any use to ppl who progress past 2/4. I was very Interest to here all the top dutch online pro's are movin to Ireland because of new laws in Holland. Be interest to hear if Abel Meijberg will be doing any coaching while here. We have good plo players and I know Hali coached a few ppl and some of us learned a lot off od but when it come to tournies we really have no 1.
Back to San Remo the final table had young players from Italy America Sweden France so its not as if other countries arent succeding where we are quite clearly failing.
Writing this I feel as if this comes across as a disjointed rant. However I am going to throw it out there, do other feels that we have been some what let down, or are we really that bad.

Ollieboy

firstly, your intentions are good, but you are so far of the mark that you can't even see it.

PPP owe nothing to Irish Poker, most of there business is the UK and to have a event like the Irish Open in this country is massive. Its rated as one of the biggest events to win outside WSOP, EPT and WPT. I reckon PPP spend closed to 1 million on the IO each year and thats a massive boast to the local poker community.

As for the performance of Irish players, well most of them have thereselves to blame.

In 2006 I was in Vegas for the WSOP Main Event. I watch nearly all the young Irish players been hook on video games, crap tables and the enjoyment that vegas as to offer. I dont think any of them took it serious, like eating fruit, staying of the beer, getting plenty of sleep. Most of them treat it like a holiday and thats fair enough, but you have a chance to change your life and your more interest in winning at video games. I'm not taking a swing at any of the lads, there all great players and know how to enjoy themselves, but poker is a business and you have to treat it like that. Rob Taylor is one of the few newer players to realise this and he works at his game in the correct manner and keeps his head down. He wants the fame and money and that will trive him on to success.

Now the performance of Irish players in relation to the international arena. Well our performances have been very good. Many Irish players have done well in the last few years. But remember the size of our country, 4 million. Were one off the smallest poker communities in the world and we achieve way above our level. You see 20 greeks, don't the greeks have 60 million odd population?

So there is only 10 players in Ireland beaten 5/10, I would reckon thats correct. But the community here is so small it makes it hard for these players to access the bigger lives games, hence they dont win big tourneys, but there very successiful players.

As I said, your intentions are right, but PPP or Boyles sponsor a Irish player is not a option, as the market place here is so small. Look at Germany recently, 3 new sign pro's by full-tilt, is this to increase the game or standard of game in Germany? No its about winning the market place in a massive growing and young market. Ireland doesn't have this.

Anyway, end of my rant.

I would love to see some new players coming through in Ireland, but outside about 20 players I know, few I feel have the game at the top level. I dont want to mention people, but a big score and running well in one tourney doesn't make you a successiful player, it takes years of work and continue success. But if you have the bankroll you can gain the learning curve, but very few Irish players have the funds.

intereting to hear other peoples fews.

valor

wtf where did the other thread go where i was funny by calling dave the white phil ive imo!!!!11