The life of a poker donkey 5000th post tl;dr

Flushdraw

For my 5k post, i decided to just tell my poker story and see if anyone wants to read it. Its long so not sure if anyone will bother but it brought back memories for me and probably will for other people i've mentioned throughout. Get yourself a cup of tea if you got 5 minutes ha!

It all started with Late Night Poker. My favourite show ever because its where my love for poker came about. I watched every episode and its where I first came across many characters in the game who are still about now and that l love watching. I liked Phil Helmuth when he first appeared. I loved the way Korash played the game. Ram Vaswani stood out as a class player. I also noticed how some players like Lucy Rocash, Mike Magee, Simon Trumper seemed very ordinary, yet seemed to do so well. This 2 card thing was all new to me, as were the big faced cards, as I’d only ever played 5 card draw. Very soon I knew that this was going to be something I wanted to do long term. I made a promise to myself and to everyone else 5 years ago, that I’d play on a televised final table with under the table cameras before I was 30. This was my first goal in poker.

I'd only ever played one serious game of poker before trying Texas HE. A poker classic in the Sands hotel which was a €100 buy in 5 card draw tourney about 5-6 years ago. I got knocked out when I was dealt 888xx and lost my dough to a dealt flush. They were taking names for a €50 Texas Holdem tourney and I stuck my name down for it. I was far more excited about this as I was getting a chance to play my first ever Holdem tourney so i jumped at the chance. I managed to finish 3rd for 300 or so and was chuffed.

I got talking to a few people there and ended up heading back to some poker club in Raheny for a game. It was a social club that met every Tuesday and they played poker and Kalookie. This was my first taste of regular poker and played this for 4 or 5 weeks. The average age of the club was about 50 so I looked around for something a bit more refreshing and stumbled across "Breaks" in Drumcondra. At the same time my Late Night Poker book arrived. My first piece of reading material and I still have it sitting at home. Cant say it thought me too much bar the basics tbh!

So "Breaks"…..well my first game down there was a €100 buy in game on a Friday night. I think there was 10-12 tables and a decent crowd and IIRC a certain Dave Masters took it down. Afterwards there was a couple of €20 freezeouts and I took 1 or 2 down for a profit for the night. Its also where I met Fergus (babymaker6) and re-acquainted myself with Wes (bottom feeder), both whom I have grown to be close friends over the years.

Breaks became the battle ground over the next year or so and its where I learned my trade. Wes played a little more blackjack than poker so myself and Fergus regularly won tourneys and sit and go's down there. Cash games never got going in breaks so it was always STTs once the MTTs were finished. Many a night we'd sit there till 4 or 5 in the morning playing and I had very few losing nights. I made quite a few friends during my Breaks days and it was important step for me in my poker ladder. Its probably why I much prefer tournies to cash and I just cant make the transition no matter how hard I try.

I got my first decent score from Breaks. I played a freezeout in their sister club in "Qs" Clondalkin and finished 4th for €2100. It was the first 4 figure win I had and was thinking happy days, this could be good. A couple of weeks later, I finished 3rd in a leaderboard freeroll they had, where 1st prize was a holiday for 2 to Las Vegas. Bad Beat Joe split this with the guy in 2nd and they headed off together..was pretty disappointed to say the least as my bustout hand was a particularly sick AA v A2 on J22 flop

Breaks and Qs were being run by the infamous Emerald Casinos and my first trip outside "home" was up to Dundalk for a game in their club shortly after that Las Vegas freeroll disaster. Myself, Fergus and Wes headed up to play this. Fergus took it down for €6500 if I remember and we had a % of each other so I got a few quid out of it. Ever since then, I’ve always swapped % in most tourneys I play, and its worked out quite well over the years.

Breaks began to fade due to the way it was run and the fact it done nothing to keep its punters happy and I was looking for somewhere else to play. I wasn’t a fan of casinos, as I felt I’d be intimidated playing in one so when I heard about "Pokerevents" it seem like the way forward. The held a game in the Red Cow every Thursday (later changed to Mondays) and it became a regular game for me. Living in Ballymun and not driving, the distance was the only problem. Pokerevents was in a field of its own back 3 years ago or so. It had no Green Joker Poke, No JP poker or any rival companies to deal with. It regularly got 100+ runners in its events and was superbly run by Donal and Fintan.

There was a lot of bad players there but the same faces regularly got to the final table. Dave Masters, Damo Kavanagh, JohnnyL, SpoofingJam, NFR, Bomber Nolan, Mr Pillowtalk, Smurph and a few others that I’ve a lot of time for and enjoy bumping into at events throughout the country. I had a bit of success at Pokerevents, most notably qualifying for the Irish Poker Championships in 2006. It was a 3k buy in to be held at the Citywest and would be my first time playing a big buy in event and being put in the mix against the professionals. I was licking my lips at the opportunity. Myself and Fergus qualified as I took out the whole final table, getting lucky early on when my 1010 cracked KK...1010 became my lucky hand and if I don’t flop a set with it, I’m so disappointed! It was also the first time I ever got to say, “raise….half a million” ha!

On the way to that final table, I played one hand that stuck with me. It was 2 or 3 tables out and I was the table with Dave Masters and a couple of others. I have more respect for Dave than most players. He plays the game beautifully and makes some marginal calls and plays based on his reads/speechplay and he's not afraid to go with his convictions. He's also had a quiet word or 2 with me over the years and helped me improve my game. Top bloke. Anyways, the blinds were 1500/3000 and there were 4 limpers to me. I look down at 108s and make it 22k to go (I had a stack of about 60k) Dave is to act a couple of spots later and he put me through the mill. I don’t know if I stole his spot, if he knew that I knew etc but the table folded, each taking an age while I sat there motionless and as I was scooping in the chips, I remember thinking....wow I love this game. If I had a fave non premium hand, 108s would be it.

So I qualified for the IPC and its off to the Citywest with me in June 06. What a day. I remember looking around at all these faces that I’d seen on telly and saying to myself "Now its time to prove to yourself that you belong here" I got my table draw, sat down and didn’t notice any named players so was a pretty good table for me. Our table was first to break and I remember drawing table "Derry" Looked around and couldn’t find it hmmmm so I asked Donal where it was an he pointed up to the stage.......sh1t.

I walked up and took my seat. 2 to the left of Ram Vaswani...effing marvellous. But it didn’t end there. Once I steady myself and look around, I find Padraig Parkinson, Xuyen “Bad Girl” Pham, Ross Boatman, Ivan Donaghy and Ricky Cosgrave (phew..a fish at last ;-)). Over the next few hours, Flipper Walsh, Stephen Hendry, Julian Gardner, Barney Boatman had all been at the table. I played some good stuff here and really enjoyed it. I played one of my best hands ever against Ram Vaswani. I’ve posted this before but here goes..

This hand arose about 5 or 6 hours into the tournie and up til then I’d put
up with a barrage of raises from Ram when I was in the blinds and had played
back at him a number of times but never really took any big chips from him.
Blinds are 300/600. I have about 45k, Ram chip leader with approx 75k.
Folded around to Ram on the button and he makes his standard raise to 1800.I look down at Ks10c and call.

Flop comes a magical QcJs9s. I check, Ram bets 3k, I call. His range is any 2 cards here so I’m not sure if he’s hit the flop heavy or missed completely. I know he’ll fire a couple of bullets at the board and this is my chance to accumulate some chips and make a serious dent in the tournament favourite. Turn is a 6c. I check and he bets 7k. I’m still thinking how's the best way to extract money from him so I dwell for a while. I want him to think that I’m drawing to either a flush or a straight so I “reluctantly” call.

I’m praying for a low red card on the river so I can push for my remaining
33k knowing that it will stink of a missed draw and will hopefully look to him
like I’m trying to steal the pot. To my delight a 2d comes on the river and
I announce all-in and push for 33k into a 25k pot. Ram thinks for an age ( 7 or 8 minutes ) before announcing call. I flip over the nuts and he mucks his
cards in disgust. I later learnt he called with A9. That hand gave me the chip lead and I never looked back.

I manage to make my way to the final table and sitting 5th in chips at the beginning of the day, There'd been a spate of betting on me during the morning and I began the day 3rd in the betting on a table that consisted of Ram Vaswani, Mel Judah, Julian Thew and eventual winner Brendan Walls

3 hands into the FT I made a fk up of titanic standards. Folded to me in the SB and I make it 18k (blinds 3k/6k) Mohammed Shafik in the BB makes it 40k. I ship for 170k. He shrugs his shoulders and calls for 152k. He flipped over 66 and I was in bad shape with my 53o ;-( No help and I’m down to 18k. I clawed back to 140k and made a bad play where I raised to 40k and Brendan Walls shoved. I thought for ages and folded AJ. I got my last 100k chips across the line with A9 in the BB when Mel Judah raised from the button, He was committed to call with J7 and he flopped a house. Out in 5th for €22k. Disappointed but chuffed at the same time.

After this I decided to take a trip into the casinos in town and try my luck. I also signed up on boards in June 06 as I’ve been reading for a while but only posted on Antesup which was better for poker updates at the time. Signing up with boards has been another important step for me because I’ve made a lot of friends from boards over the years and also met my girlfriend Gill. The community spirit here a year ago was fantastic as it was a much smaller group. The boards poker community has grown so much over the last year that almost anyone and everyone is on boards these days!

October 06 I win my first trophy as a poker player ;-) Runner up to Joe "the show" O Neill in the Ace of Spades Halloween festival for a couple of grand. That still sits proudly on my shelf. During the 4 months since the IPC I’d made more fiends through boards and from my visits to the casinos around town. I’d switch between the Fitz and The Sporting but the Sporting Emporium was always my casino of choice and its where my next big result stemmed. I'd tried to qualify for the European Poker Masters but failed. I really wanted to play in this so when Jay O Toole (Jayminator) qualified, I offered to buy his ticket off him. We dealt at €2200 which was great for a €3300 buy in. There was a wee % included too so I know Jay was cheering me on!

I turned up for the main event in November 06 and was disappointed to see a smaller turn out than expected. Phil Ivey and Gus Hansen were meant to be among the runners but they didn’t show. Neither did any of the Hendon mob. Seeing as Ross Boatman was at my table, that was acceptable! I was pleased with my table draw for a couple of reasons. There were 6 Full Tilt pros over and there were 2 at my table. Mike "the mouth" Mattusow and Clonie Gowan. Clonie was pretty tasty in the flash and Mike was a good laugh. Mike didn’t last too long though as him and Clonie clashed and her flush toppled mikes flopped set. I nearly didn’t see the 1st break myself as in the first level of a 10k starting stack, Eamon O Reilly (5pin5) tried to raise to 150 and made it 1050 by mistake. I decided to make it 3k and steal a few early chips. But for those that know Eamon, he says in his customary voice "fk it, I have my money in there and I;m not leaving" and he calls! I cant remember the exact cards but he took it with a pair. I was happy to get a check down and only lose that amount!

Along the way, I ended up at Eric Seidel and then Howard Lederers table. There was a bounty on all the FullTilt pros and I got in a hand with Lederer. I was one to his right and I’d been raising a bit and getting snapped off by him on occasions. I also 4bet him with air on one occasion. I raised from the button with 66. He calls. Flop comes K53 and he leads out. I think and ship the loot. He calls with KQ and I spike a 6 on the river. It was a horrible suckout but one that gave me a decent stack. I left Lederer with a smattering of chips and Vera finished him off for the bounty.

2 tables out I get moved to another table. This one had the Richard Toth who won the previous EPM in Austria and an unknown (at the time) Finn (Thomas Walhroos). Super aggressive table and I 3bet each of them early which showed I wasn’t going to sit there and wait for the nuts. It was a fun table and I enjoyed it but the standard was super tough. I managed to survive and make the Final Table.

Myself, Dominic Heever (5starpool) and Vera Duffy made the FT. It was a good day out as we did interviews, got fitted up with a heart monitor and made feel special. The final table was tough with Dave "El Blondie" Colclough and Thomas Walhroos pulling most of the strings. The final table was in the royal college of surgeons I had a lot of support in the crowd with friends travelling to support me. I knocked on Dom early on when my 44 held up against his AQ. I had a strange hand against German unknown Thomas Trinks when I 3bet him with 1010 to 90k after he raised to 30k. He tried to go allin but the language barrier made it a call. Flop comes down K high and I push my last 30k or so chips in. He folds what later turned out to be AQ. Crazy bstard was getting about 7 to 1 and had me covered.

I also doubled up eventual winner Adrian Walsh 3 times on the FT...My 47o bluff v his 25 on A34 board. My 22 v K7 thanks to a rivered K and my horribly played JJ v his A7 on an AAx board. My exit hand was AJ v Dave Colcloughs K10 when he rivered a straight. Gone in 4th got €20k. Again disappointed but happy with the overall display. I'd made my goal of reaching a televised final table before I was 30 so this was nh wpp gg job done by me ;-)))

I became good friends with Ian McDonnell(ianmc38) and Peter Maughan (Halfbaked) and went over to Vegas for the first time in Jan 07. We all went to London and the lads had a Virgin flight booked direct to Vegas and because I had only decided later on to join, I was on a stop over flight with American Airlines. I flew in San Fran and missed my connecting flight because I was delayed on the first plane, so had to fork out extra and spend 5 hours hanging around. I finally get to Vegas but my luggage didnt follow me. Not the best start but hooked up with the lads and had a few drinks and played some Texas Bonus Poker and watched Ian play craps like a seasoned pro!

I played ok in Vegas but only broke even coming home. Made a lot from the 1/2 cash but lost playing 2/5 and a couple of decent buy in in tourneys. The 2 lads had a ball and won well and they also chopped a little English/Asian bird called Michelle. It was a good buzz though and I really enjoyed the whole experience. Apart from the lads giving me a little single bed in the corner of their room while they both sprawled out on double beds in the MGM!

Played the IPC in Jan 07 to see if I could repeat my performance of last year but it didn’t happen for me. Played the €500 buy in side event and finished 4th for €5500...For those of you that didn’t think he had it in him, Neill Kelly aka Big Slick Poker chopped this heads-up, My first time meeting him and another really nice bloke on the poker scene who has done so much for Irish Poker. I put a team in for his Team Event in Waterford the following month and we managed to win it for €10k. Chopped nicely between myself, Fergus and 2 other lads we’d played with in Breaks.

I'd always wanted to play the Irish Open and I qualified online for it through Paddy Power. I was playing really well leading up to it and was in high spirits. I got a nice table draw and picked up chips fairly comfortably throughout. 15 minutes from the end of day 1 I was comfortable enough in chips and was thinking about going for a stroll and then coming back to bag up my chips. I'll just play my button. Limper pf (not sure of blinds or stacks) and I look down at AA and raise it up. Limper calls. Flop is Jxx 2 rags. He checks, I bet 2/3 pot and he ships it. Wow....Completely un-coordinated board and he's c/r me when I’m committed. I was getting about 6 to 1 on a call but I’d only had 4 BB left if I lose. I told him that I knew he had JJ and I tried to fold but the overriding factor that made me call was that I convinced myself he could be doing this with QQ or KK so I called. His JJ held up and I was almost busto. Willow Connolly knocked me out shortly after...I was gutted because if I win that hand, I’m top 20 in chips going into tomorrow,,,i should have mucked though and went with my read. Halfbaked managed to finish well into the money and I picked up a few hundred from him thanks to a % swop ;-)

Took another trip over to Vegas in July 07 with Fergus. Had a disaster and tilted and busted myself over there. Played 2 sats ($1650) into the WSOP Main event that didn’t go according to plan...Ran pretty bad in cash games so done what comes natural and moved up levels. I’ve always been a pretty bad cash game player and didn’t take the variance well. Came home from Vegas and didn’t know what direction my poker was going to take..I sat pretty for a few months and grinded up a small bankroll.

Played the Waterford Festival in November 07 and finished a disappointed 14th cashing for €1500. I was playing well enough to go deeper in that event and it was another blow. NFR putting the final nail in my coffin for that one

Didn’t have a great Christmas pokerwise and couldn’t get a win for love nor money. I'd also become an online donk and tilted away a nice few quid. Drunk + poker + tilt = spew ;-(..I tilt far too bad these days and its costing me!

Feb 08 and the GJP deepstack in Drogheda comes around. I had decided that I wasn’t really rolled to fork out €1500 to play this so I said I’d play the satellite the night before and try and qualify. I'd also chatted to Mike Lacey (Mr GJP) and I’d struck a deal with him too. I qualified in the end and was looking forward to a 50k starting stack event ;-)

I didn’t do anything special for the first few hours and ended up at a table with John “Dagunman” O Shea and Ricky "TheChopper" Cosgrove on it. They battled away like cat and dog while I did nothing eventful. As the day moved on, I got moved to a more colourful table which has Joe Beevers, Marcel Abeccassis, John Falconer, Graham Clarkson, Rory Matthews, Dara "Doke" O Kearney and "Jackyback" at it. This was a great table with plenty of action. I made a nice move here to build my stack and it put me in good stead. Beevers was on my right and a bit on the shortish side and kept raising my blind. I couldn’t push because he was almost committed to call with anything and all I had was a bag of bollix each time. He made it really difficult for me to find a spot as he always got there before me. Anyway Marcel Abeccassis raises to from MP to 6k and I 3bet from the BB to 18k . He calls. Flop is Q78.. I bet out 30k and he calls...sh1t. I ship my last 80k or so in blind before the turn comes down. He thinks for an age and folds. I muck while flipping over a 6 ;-)

So I make it through Day 1 healthy enough chips and head home with Wes at all hours that morning. Wake up next day feeling fresh but my lift lets me down. I head down for the bus and jump on, but this bus decides that he wants to take the scenic route to Drogheda and I knew I was going to miss the start of the tourney. Load of kok. Then Noel "BCB" Hayes rings and asks do I need a lift out and that he'll pick me up at the airport and drop me because he was heading out. I jumped off the bus and made my way. Noel got me there right on time and I only had time to sit my arse on the chair and the cards where in the air. I still own BCB for that.

I duck and dive a bit until I reach the final table. Its a boards star studded Final Table..LuckyLloyd, AKQJ10, Jackyback, Rag2gar, Doke, Baz2007 and Joe Beevers. I take a huge hit which would have put me big chip leader when I get it all in against Beevers. My AQ v his JJ. The door card on the flop is a Q....but there was a J hiding behind it ;-(

I'm down, but bounce back up to close to a million chips and 2nd only to Marc "AKQJ10" McDonnell. He’s an extremely tricky player and capable of some crazy plays but that’s his game. You never know if he has the nuts or nothing. Because he’s chip leader, he’ll be playing a wider range and I should have been trying to avoid him tbh but I decide I’m going to run a bluff off if he raises my blinds...I couldn’t help myself! Marc raises from EP to 60k I think. I call from the BB with J7. Flop is A24. I lead out for 80k, Marc calls. Turn is a Jack. I check, Marc bets 240k, I ship for close to a million and he instacalls and turns out 44...vwp, nh gg and I’m left kicking myself at another what could have been. Out in 8th for €4400 ;-(

I hung around for a bit waiting on Fergus to pick me up and drop me home. That was a special day for me and I was in good spirits because I’d been chatting to Gill for a while and we decided to start dating, and now 10 months later, we’re still together and planning a future so things looking great on that front :_))

Warmed up for the Irish Open in March with another team event win, this time in JPs team event with Fergus, LuckyLloyd and Mickste for a few quid. Probably one of the most enjoyable sessions of poker I’ve had as it was a tactical game all the way through and we seemed to do everything right.

Irish Open was a disaster. My table consisted of R4AD, Todd Brunson and Sorel Mizzi. I made a horrible mistake where I got the chip values wrong and accidentally raised it an extortionate amount and walked into a monster. I never recovered but managed to get all my chips into a 5bet pot with AK against Sorels AJ and he spiked a Jack. Never really recovered from my mistake and the next couple of months poker wasn’t fun at all.

Had a nice summer away from poker and went to Nice and Monaco with Gill so it was good to get a break away where I didn’t play at all. Been teaching her a bit over the last few months and she’s getting better all the time (finishing 2nd in the BCOOP series ;-)) I had another go at online cash games myself over the last couple of months but I just cant hack it! I think I need someone to iron out my bad habits and help me! Although what would really help would be a nice result from the $1040 EOM game on Brucepoker on Sunday. Hoping to play The Gold Clubs €350 game at the beginning of December and then have no poker plans so I’ll just take it as it comes from then on. Lets hope I have some similar results to report for my 10k post!

Tony

Sabertooth

great read...mattasow is the bomb,funny guy and plays well too

Glowingmind

Nice post Tony. Win more.

eoghan104

Great read Tony good man. Always a pleasure to play with you you're one of the good guys.

I love that line about peter and Ian "chopping"!!

KevIRL

Excellent post Tony. A great read.

Ste05

Good read, some really nice results in there, congrats, looking forward to reading the 10k update.

flushje

5 minutes?!? Try 30!, great read though well worth it.

wendelsailor

Good read......cheers

smurph

Flushdraw wrote: »

I got talking to a few people there and ended up heading back to some poker club in Raheny for a game. It was a social club that met every Tuesday and they played poker and Kalookie.

Tony

jasus tony, I never realised you played in the "Cara" hall in raheny for a few weeks. They had five card draw, and each player had their own Seats that they always played in. Thats where I met Willow for the first time. I used to go there on my motorbike, I think they thought I was a bit strange.

lol

great read by the way

dacman

Nice read tony. best of luck for the future.

LuckyLloyd

This post has been deleted.

doke

Truly outstanding post, Tony. You show a lot more honesty than a lot of us do when assessing our exploits.

I think it has us all rooting for you now. Good luck on Sunday. You deserve a really big score, and I'm sure it'll come because you certainly have the game.

KevIRL

If this doesnt get post of the day, I'll eat my hat.

Flushdraw next in the Well imo

Goodluck2me

smurph wrote: »

I used to go there on my motorbike, I think they thought I was a bit strange.
...great read by the way

lol qft.




What about the part where Wes used to hammer you when you were younger!?

kpnuts

tl;dr

Flushdraw

Thanks for all the comments and the thanks folks. I try to post a mix of advice/comments/jokes/vids/pics of women (less now coz Gill is watchin :rolleyes:) and just keep out of trouble on boards. Been a pleasure posting and hoping to continue over the next couple of years.

smurph wrote: »

jasus tony, I never realised you played in the "Cara" hall in raheny for a few weeks. They had five card draw, and each player had their own Seats that they always played in. Thats where I met Willow for the first time. I used to go there on my motorbike, I think they thought I was a bit strange.

lol

great read by the way

Yeah i was there for 5 weeks max. Everyone had their own seats as you said and they also used poker classic money as chips. The 2nd night i made a couple of bluffs and i was looked at like i slit someones throat! Only geniune hands her sonny...that was the beginning of the end!

doke wrote: »

Truly outstanding post, Tony. You show a lot more honesty than a lot of us do when assessing our exploits.

I think it has us all rooting for you now. Good luck on Sunday. You deserve a really big score, and I'm sure it'll come because you certainly have the game.

Thanks for that Dara. Thats a comment that i'll keep in mind for a long time.

KevIRL wrote: »

If this doesnt get post of the day, I'll eat my hat.

Flushdraw next in the Well imo

What hat you wearing? If its a straw hat, will you webcam it :cool:

I wouldnt be a fan of doing a well. I dont have enough knowledge or experience to share and the well would run dry fairly quickly!

goodluck2me wrote: »

What about the part where Wes used to hammer you when you were younger!?

Haha yeah Wes's crew and my crew had a couple of run ins when we were younger but never specifically myself and Wes! His side always won tho!

Outstanding memory is Wes going toe to toe with a 24 year old for a solid 10 mins when he was only 14!..Hardy bstard!

Just to keep you happy Joe, another good thing about Pokerevents was the amount of good dealers that was around and are still going strong today. Goodluck2me, Cooker3, Bobby_fett, Albert Kenny, Lauralashes, Sam Hayes and many more.

Hope to see you around Letterkenny someday

nicnicnic

great read Tony tks

KevIRL

Flushdraw wrote: »

What hat you wearing? If its a straw hat, will you webcam it :cool:

I hadnt considered that. But for you a visor perhaps!

erica1985

That was nice to read, thanks for sharing.

YULETIRED

Jaysus Tony, nice one. you bluffed me with 22 once in pokerevents and for that I will always hate you as I take these things very personal.

good luck, no mention of the engagement NOR the weight loss....two nice achievements for you ya former fat singleton.

bobbyg

Nice read, buy a car though!!

SWAR

Excellent read Tony

Ollieboy

bobbyg wrote: »

Nice read, buy a car though!!

He has to learn to drive first, but Gill can run him around the place now.

Didn't you do a similiar post for 2000th or something? lol

Nice read mate and gl with the poker in the future.

P.S. Gill's very nice.

ionapaul

Great post - very interesting read! Keep 'er lit, as I always say, more big results to come I hope.

DeadParrot

Good read Flushdraw.
Best of luck in the future.
I'm always wary when you are on my tabel, though that's probably down to the dodgy 'tache

tylerdurden94

Yeah i done it the wrong way round should of had tea while reading, now having tea after reading.

Great read Tony well done, i was only chatting to Fergus awhile ago and he was telling me the story of the IPC cash, i remember chatting to you after your trip from Vegas some great stories and saying to myself "man i gotta go there"

Danny

bottom feeder

ahhhh jaysus tony those where the days, and as for breaks (the **** hole) that tom cu@t was a miserable oul fecker - i suppose it wasnt that bad as we had some laughs in it.
now im in the new house we have to arrange a home game to reenact some of those nights in breaks,

listen mate great read !

digiman

Very enjoyable read. Look forward to playing with you sometime.

5starpool

I've still never forgiven you Tony.....

Conbro

Nice warts and all account of your story so far Tony. A refreshing break from the usual. Cheers

Flushdraw

Thanks again for all the replies. I seem to have lost my thank function!

YULETIRED wrote: »

Jaysus Tony, nice one. you bluffed me with 22 once in pokerevents and for that I will always hate you as I take these things very personal.

good luck, no mention of the engagement NOR the weight loss....two nice achievements for you ya former fat singleton.

Bluffed with 22..nah Willie that must have been a value bet

Yeah i was a fair bit chunkier than i am these days and hoping to get back in tip top shape once the Christmas is out of the way. As for the engagement, i've already told you that you'll be the first to know and will be invited as a guest speaker to any impending wedding :pac:

Ollieboy wrote: »

He has to learn to drive first, but Gill can run him around the place now.

Didn't you do a similiar post for 2000th or something? lol

Nice read mate and gl with the poker in the future.

P.S. Gill's very nice.

Gill does a great job as a chauffer and gonna be teaching me to drive soon coz i never bothered learning. Hoping to be on the road soon! I could have put something similar up for my 2k post but i was only a child back then ha! Gill enjoyed meeting you and a few more faces in Killarney and hopefully get a chance to do a few more in the new year

DeadParrot wrote: »

Good read Flushdraw.
Best of luck in the future.
I'm always wary when you are on my tabel, though that's probably down to the dodgy 'tache

Haha the tache is down to its minimum these days..get kept well in check but i cant get used to going fully naked!

tylerdurden94 wrote: »

Yeah i done it the wrong way round should of had tea while reading, now having tea after reading.

Great read Tony well done, i was only chatting to Fergus awhile ago and he was telling me the story of the IPC cash, i remember chatting to you after your trip from Vegas some great stories and saying to myself "man i gotta go there"

Danny

Havent been to the SE in a while so not bumped into you lately. defo get your ass to Vegas though. I'll be going back soon and hoping to ck up a few quid on my travels this time!

bottom feeder wrote: »

ahhhh jaysus tony those where the days, and as for breaks (the **** hole) that tom cu@t was a miserable oul fecker - i suppose it wasnt that bad as we had some laughs in it.
now im in the new house we have to arrange a home game to reenact some of those nights in breaks,

listen mate great read !

Defo Wes. I'll give you a shout before the Christmas and i'll pop down. You try and round up the dead money and we'll fleece 'em!

digiman wrote: »

Very enjoyable read. Look forward to playing with you sometime.

Seen your location is Donegal. I'm in Letterkenny every weekend so might bump into you some weekend

5starpool wrote: »

I've still never forgiven you Tony.....

Rather it was someone else than you Dom but we both needed a double up so at least one of us would have been happy. I know you wouldnt have given the chips away as easy i did though!

bottom feeder

Flushdraw wrote: »

Thanks again for all the replies. I seem to have lost my thank function!



Bluffed with 22..nah Willie that must have been a value bet

Yeah i was a fair bit chunkier than i am these days and hoping to get back in tip top shape once the Christmas is out of the way. As for the engagement, i've already told you that you'll be the first to know and will be invited as a guest speaker to any impending wedding :pac:



Gill does a great job as a chauffer and gonna be teaching me to drive soon coz i never bothered learning. Hoping to be on the road soon! I could have put something similar up for my 2k post but i was only a child back then ha! Gill enjoyed meeting you and a few more faces in Killarney and hopefully get a chance to do a few more in the new year



Haha the tache is down to its minimum these days..get kept well in check but i cant get used to going fully naked!



Havent been to the SE in a while so not bumped into you lately. defo get your ass to Vegas though. I'll be going back soon and hoping to ck up a few quid on my travels this time!



Defo Wes. I'll give you a shout before the Christmas and i'll pop down. You try and round up the dead money and we'll fleece 'em!



Seen your location is Donegal. I'm in Letterkenny every weekend so might bump into you some weekend



Rather it was someone else than you Dom but we both needed a double up so at least one of us would have been happy. I know you wouldnt have given the chips away as easy i did though!

tony im the bloody dead money,

kakak1

great read Tony, gl for the future

Gillybean72

Flushdraw wrote: »

Had a nice summer away from poker and went to Nice and Monaco with Gill so it was good to get a break away where I didn’t play at all. Been teaching her a bit over the last few months and she’s getting better all the time (finishing 2nd in the BCOOP series ;-)) .

Thanks for all the coaching Tony!
Strangely enough I cannot comment too much on your play, mainly your live play as we dont go often enough to the Gold Club together, we playd there on a saturday night a few months back and finished a respectable 3rd and 4th (I got the 4th position obv!) and we are restricted at the weekend to where we play online, so we dont get to play poker with each other often.

But in saying that, from what I have seen, Tony is a great player who has done well over the years. I dont think Tony realises how good he is and amazes me when he plays Badugi, stud, razz, omaha hi/lo, Hold'em omaha all at the same time, chatting to me and on boards, facebook and what ever else he may have on his screen at that moment. I struggled during the BCOOP to play Hold'em and the Omaha HU match at the same time, let alone a mix of many games with totally different strategies! And they say men cant multi-task?? they never met an online poker player then.

I have learnt so much from him since we first started chatting at the beginning of January, in the strangest circumstances due to the meddling of another boardsie (you know who you are ) He became my new poker teacher after that and it wasnt until February as he said that we decided to start dating and never looked back since.

Tony is due another big cash and he thoroughly deserves it, he has played well in the tournies lately and its just a matter of time.

So to end my ramblings here, just want to say well done on the post and good luck with the future pokers, but I will be there to watch anyways!

BuChan

nice work tony. good luck in the future, unique (90% sicko) style, why stop at one tv table.

Mellor

Nice honest read Tony,

digiman

Flushdraw wrote: »

Seen your location is Donegal. I'm in Letterkenny every weekend so might bump into you some weekend

Unfortunately I'm rarely ever there. Living in Dublin these days, I think I might have played with you in a cash game before in the SE but not sure.

YULETIRED

Gillcarr1972 wrote: »

good luck with the future pokers, but I will be there to watch anyways!

ya see Tony, I tried to warn ya, da wimmins , ya know it'll get to the stage when ya can't take a wizz.

Gillybean72

YULETIRED wrote: »

ya see Tony, I tried to warn ya, da wimmins , ya know it'll get to the stage when ya can't take a wizz.

Jaysus Willie, can I not even support him now without you making a funny comment ;);) lol

BigCityBanker

cliff notes

tony dioscovers poker
improves
wins money
woman discovers tony
tony no longer plays poker

good read tony

Flipz4Rollz

Good read

corkie123

best read i had on a poker forum in a long time that i read it a few times .

tylerdurden94

BuChan wrote: »

nice work tony. good luck in the future, unique (90% sicko) style, why stop at one tv table.

The elusive Eamon! No more lurking gotta get back to playing, hope to see you around, Danny.

Moneymaker

Great read, some great stories and im sure thats only the surface. gl for the future.

The_Chopper

Nice one Tony - I remember that 3k event really well. I remember having a good discusion with Donal (TD) about you after I got knocked out. We were both very impressed by how you were handling yourself at the feature table and playing against the pros. I also remember talking to Ram Vaswani about that K10 hand, he called you with A9o. Funny thing about that hand was that he was talking himself into a fold until Mike 4 aces Murray called clock on him, at this point he thought what the hell and called you, LOL

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

Gillcarr1972 wrote: »

Thanks for all the coaching Tony!
Strangely enough I cannot comment too much on your play, mainly your live play as we dont go often enough to the Gold Club together, we playd there on a saturday night a few months back and finished a respectable 3rd and 4th (I got the 4th position obv!) and we are restricted at the weekend to where we play online, so we dont get to play poker with each other often.

But in saying that, from what I have seen, Tony is a great player who has done well over the years. I dont think Tony realises how good he is and amazes me when he plays Badugi, stud, razz, omaha hi/lo, Hold'em omaha all at the same time, chatting to me and on boards, facebook and what ever else he may have on his screen at that moment. I struggled during the BCOOP to play Hold'em and the Omaha HU match at the same time, let alone a mix of many games with totally different strategies! And they say men cant multi-task?? they never met an online poker player then.

I have learnt so much from him since we first started chatting at the beginning of January, in the strangest circumstances due to the meddling of another boardsie (you know who you are ) He became my new poker teacher after that and it wasnt until February as he said that we decided to start dating and never looked back since.

Tony is due another big cash and he thoroughly deserves it, he has played well in the tournies lately and its just a matter of time.

So to end my ramblings here, just want to say well done on the post and good luck with the future pokers, but I will be there to watch anyways!

you forgot to say "he's a ride" Nice honest post Tony always a pleasure to have you at the table although i must stop floating with 44 against you:pac: Hope you score another big one soon

Flushdraw

Gillcarr1972 wrote: »

Thanks for all the coaching Tony!

amazes me when he plays Badugi, stud, razz, omaha hi/lo, Hold'em omaha all at the same time, chatting to me and on boards, facebook and what ever else he may have on his screen at that moment. I struggled during the BCOOP to play Hold'em and the Omaha HU match at the same time, let alone a mix of many games with totally different strategies! And they say men cant multi-task?? they never met an online poker player then.

No probs on the coaching ;-) Its fun, most of the time! Me multi-tabling different games on different sites is just the degenerate in me shining through! I wasnt too bad until i got the 2 24" monitors but now its all systems go to and i'll regularly play other disciplines than boring oul holdem!
Although in saying that, i've sort of forgotten how to play omaha of late because i play so much Omaha hi/lo so thats something i need to improve on!

BuChan wrote: »

nice work tony. good luck in the future, unique (90% sicko) style, why stop at one tv table.

Sounds like your own style Eamonn! Good to see you back on and hopefully you'll be back around soon crushing Dublins games!

corkie123 wrote: »

best read i had on a poker forum in a long time that i read it a few times .

Cheers Corkie

Moneymaker wrote: »

Great read, some great stories and im sure thats only the surface. gl for the future.

I could have wrote a book lol

dannydiamond

Thanks for the great read and the obvious effort Tony.

Just one question,do you have any plans to actually win a tournie?;)

Hope the cards and the lady treat you well for the future,read my sig for my wifes advice,stood me well so far.

Flushdraw

dannydiamond wrote: »

Thanks for the great read and the obvious effort Tony.

Just one question,do you have any plans to actually win a tournie?;)

LOL yeah Danny, thats one thing thats sadly lacking...a win in a decent buyin event. I tend to play more aggresive around the bubble early on in the money. What usually happens is i either take a big hit and end up shortstacked, or get over confident with a big stack and push for 1st place. I think i need to learn to adjust a little better when i get 4-5 handed in a tourney.

That is pretty good advice Danny..I'll have to remember that, cheers!

dannydiamond

Flushdraw wrote: »

LOL yeah Danny, thats one thing thats sadly lacking...a win in a decent buyin event. I tend to play more aggresive around the bubble early on in the money. What usually happens is i either take a big hit and end up shortstacked, or get over confident with a big stack and push for 1st place. I think i need to learn to adjust a little better when i get 4-5 handed in a tourney.

Keep putting yourself in those positions Tony and it's only a matter of time.

hotspur

Flushdraw wrote: »

Its fun, most of the time! Me multi-tabling different games on different sites is just the degenerate in me shining through!

Can you manage to multitable badugi successfully? I've tried to 4 table it and I just can't, too hard to keep track of the number of cards everyone has drawn and the losing hands won't pop up on a HUD cause it doesn't work with badugi.