Q&A with nicnicnic

nicnicnic · 26-01-2008 09:03AM

Flushdraw wrote: »

Hi Nicky...couple of questions for you

Hows Tricks Tony

1. How many tables do you play at a time when playing STTs and are they all the same buyin?

I really only back playing them after about 8/9 months now that i think of it not the 7 i said. I don't play over six but between 4/6 depending on how I feel I'm playing how I'm running and whats on TV. When I used to play the Sterling ones on crypto I used to mix 20s/30s/50s depending on the traffic. I once tried 12 tabling turbos for a 90 minute session it was a disaster

2. Around bubble time, do you consciously try to make it into the money by playing solid, or will you still take chances/flips and make moves in order to build a bigger stack?

I'm very aggro on the bubble

3. Whats the longest winning streak you've had in STTs?

I had a streak of 11/12 6 wins a no cash and then five win, I had five wins in a row maybe 3 times apart from this I think. I think 13 without a cash is my worst run I'll check sharkscope later for it, I know that the longest winning streak on scope is 9 wins by any player

4. If you could look into the future and you saw that if you stopped playing STTs and MTTs and played cash games exclusively , you'd make 10% more in your lifetime from poker, would you make the change?

for 10% I don't think I'd bother. I'm under no illusions that at some stage I'm gonna have to move to cash unless I can get a huge live touch. I've made a few half hearted attempts the most recent when I played 16000 hands after 5000 my ptbb/100 was 15/100 after 16000 I was down 4 buy ins although poker ev had me up 12 on sklansky bucks. I don't know what it is with me but I just don't like cash. I'm sure that I could train myself to grow to put up with grinding cash, I just don't have the motivation ATM. I have no doubt that if I moved to cash I could beat it at a decent level as my knowledge would give me a great start, I'm also sure that I could identify any leaks pretty quickly. If I do move I know straight away that online my biggest leak would be calling when I know I'm beat. When I started playing I played a fair bit of live cash and didn't mind and quiet enjoyed it but that isn't the case today

5. Whats your poker expectation from 2008?

This is a hard question to answer Tony, I expect I'll be profitable and will make more then I would If I was working. A satisfying fact from last year is that the profit I made in the IO ( I had 50% of my action out because of a deal in blazing aces and swapping percentages ) was only about half of the profit I recorded for 2007. This is going to open me up to a bit for abuse but I actually feel that I didnt run very well in 2007. Having said that because the variance is so much in mtts i wouldn't be surprised if I didn't say have any results that register for all of 2008 on the hendonmobo data base on the other hand i wouldn't be surprised to have ten results on it in 2008, thats the nature of being a live tournament player

Cheers Nicky and good luck

TKS Tony

...

The Improver · 26-01-2008 11:31AM

Hey Nicky, good stuff so far, just a few quick ones for you.
1.in the last Waterford fest when i doubled you up on the buble do you think i should have folded considering the stack i had and espeicially when i picked up info on you earlier when you showed AAs KKs a couple of times?

2.when you sit down and play on line do you play only stts and how many hours do you put in?, or do play sats and mtt aswell.

3.We have been on the same table quite a few times, what do you think of me as a player?

Best of luck Keith.

rag2gar · 26-01-2008 12:55PM

Nicky you are considered one of the top players in the country thanks to some very impressive results in Irish tournaments. What do you believe is key to making the step up from an average run of the mill tourney player to a top succesful tournament winner?

Having played countless hours of live poker over the last few years what is the most impressive attributes eg good stategy and worst flaws eg going on tilt you see in quality/poorer players?

If you were to rate yourself as a poker player today on a scale of 1-10 where would you be and why?

Is it correct to never do deals in tourneys under normal stuctures/payouts in your opinion?

What percentage of your attitude to playing poker is considered working or entertainment? (EG 60% for work ie making money element, 40% for entertainment)

Your blog seems pretty well received with 14 comments on your last post. Do you plan on keeping it up in the future and to what extent? As in a post a week/month after a big tourney etc?

Who's your tip for next months deepstack game? Are you playing and if so how do you rate your chances in what shall be a truly unique tourney?

Thanks a mill

Van Dice · 26-01-2008 01:03PM

good thread nicnic

dacman · 26-01-2008 03:22PM

Hi nicky good read so far

Here are some questions of mine.

1.If you are chatting up some really nice bird in a pub/club and she is really interested and then she asks you what do you do for a living what would you say.

2. Say you had 200k in the bank would you find it hard to take a 100 freeze out in waterford seriously.

3. Whats your favourite/least favourite site to play online and why.

4. Whats your biggest online tourney win besides the prague ept.

5. Do you think young people aged between 18-22 who make say 40k a year at poker and have given up there jobs/college career goals are making a wrong move in the long term.

6. Do you get a weird reaction of non poker people when you tell them what you do for a living.

thanks nicky

eagle eye · 26-01-2008 06:35PM

Fair play Nicky for doing this, just a couple of easy ones for you.

1. Whats your preferred structure for a freezeout with a €500+ buyin?
2. Who is the player you find it most difficult to play against?
3. Whats your best piece of advice for someone starting out at poker?
4. What is your biggest goal in life pokerwise?
5. Who is your favourite golfer of all time and present time if different?
6. You find an old dusty lamp and rub it and a genie pops out and gives you three wishes, what are they?
7. Who is your favourite poker player of all time and present time if different?
8. Who is your least favourite poker player of all time and present time
if different?

Brayruit · 26-01-2008 11:20PM

Just two questions Nicky...

(1)

Folded round to you and you hold J2o in the cut off.

You respect the play of the BB but you think that the button and SB are weak.

Fold, call or raise?

(2)

How long do you remember the way a player played certain hands / situations?

Rossibaby · 27-01-2008 12:01AM

great thread nic thanks for doing it!

1.whats the best advice you would give to a young poker player at low stakes?

2.when i have a bad run or make a stupid decision i tend to dwell on it as i dont play really often[once/twice a week],do you expiefrence similar feelings?

3.sometimes i kind of know im behind but find it hard to let a good hand go,say hitting something on the flop then danger cards on turn and river.i almost call out of stubborness...ne advice

4.do you think tight players ultimately do better in tourny's,i find that aggro ones often bow out needlessly,as you say that pot where 2 guys were knocked out got you 25k.tight players can get a little stick but i find the respect you get can lead you to pull of bluffs better and consistently win pots playing premium hands with the odd suited connecters thrown it

5.do you think players often think they are better than they are?i mean local club players,often they say '' oo you should have folded there'' etc i find them a bit idiotic to claim suc things`after a hand

6.how did you learn?and what do you think are your main attributes

nicnicnic · 27-01-2008 02:17AM

I know I haven't being answering loads on this yet but promise to get round to everyone

nicnicnic · 27-01-2008 02:37AM

I said I'll do these chronologically and received the following ones by Pm on Thursday morning

Right Nicnicnicnicnicnicnicnic, My name is Michael McGumshious.

1. You have to recast series 4 of Fr. Ted. and two of your stars are Hector Jelly and Requiem 4a dream. ..What roles would you give them.. NOTE Not the bastard name calling couple John and Mary, that's two obvious.

Hmm probably come up with to new roles for them HJ as the Holy goest and R4d as bishop Casey

2. Who would win between you and Pat Storan in the following. A) Singing competition. Welly throwing C) Heads up for Caravans in Dungarvan D) General all round culchiness...

A. ME B. Pat I don't have any wellies C. dead heat I'd say D. you do know that Waterford was the capital of Ireland before Dublin

3. The absolute funniest thing you've heard at the poker table

cant really of one but will get back to it, I'd imagine I said it though. I once saw a guy call an allin Vs top set with no pair no draw, 6 high actually and hit a RR st flush.

4. Waterford hurlers are known bottlers , to what do you attribute Waterfords lack of all Ireland success considering their obvious talent......

Ive never been a gaa man but I guess its because there bottlers

5. Who (IYO) is the rudest player in... A) Dublin Ireland

not gonna answer this type of Question on a public forum

6. If you had to give up poker tomorrow........would you take it up agian the next day? er sorry I mean what would you do?

probably bank jobs

7. Who is the most overrated player in Ireland

not gonna answer this type of Question on a public forum

8. Annette-15 has surprisingly got one or two admirers, are you one of them. I'm not talking about poker here....ie would ya? *cough *cough

No way but I've done worse

9 Predict something for this year, choose anything , any subject, but make it interesting and not obvious. IE Kilkenny winning the all-Ireland.

that black dude running for president will be assassinated if he gets the democratic nomination

10. Name 6 players for entertainment purposes only, you'd like to spend an evening playing cards with. (ie money is irrelevant)

Parkinson, Jessy May, Unger, Hellmuth, HJ & R4d

Only Aces · 27-01-2008 02:47AM

nicky,if ur brother gary hdad kept playing do you think he would have developed into as good a player as yourself?

if you keep playing until ur 65 do you think you could become as good a player as butch?

cheers m8;)

nicnicnic · 27-01-2008 03:30AM

Ollieboy wrote: »

Hi Nicky,

Do you think you can support a family and make a long term living from playing poker?

It can be done I'm sure but I'm sure that if I had a family I would have another source of income as back up. I'd imagine unless you were at the very top of the game the pressures would be enormous

Whats your plans for the future as a poker player?

World domination would suffice, Its kinda like Tonys expectations ? for 2008, It would be great to play all the top events but just continuing to be a winning profitable player is whats important.

Do you set yourself a monthly, yearly target?

No but if I didn't make X amount over the coming year I would have to look at doing something else

Do you count rake in your profit/loss for the year?

If you mean rakeback yes, for stts its a huge part of what you make

Whats your high point in Poker?

well I said my first big tournament win but last years IO was very significant to me aswell, A 100k cash is huge for any tournament player my profile as a poker player was increased hugely by the event also. It will also be important when I get another really big score

Whats your low point in Poker?

the IO last year I was pretty upset for a few days after the event, I knew how close I had come to a life changing win.

Who's your favourite Irish Pro Player and why?

You are Ollie your just so nice and cuddly i want to hug you every time I see you

Describe your style?

Tag with gears and lots of them

Whats the most important skills required for MTT online?

I really not much of an online mtt player I'm a life winner but don't play that many. Patience and not tilting are importing online but for me I have trouble concentrating consistently. Basically paying attention, I get distracted to easily when playing online mtts

Whats the most important skills required for MTT Live?

Its playing the player without doubt, its a basic point but there's no point pulling elaborate moves against people that only see there own two cards

Gl with this.

Tks Ollie

nicnicnic · 27-01-2008 04:11AM

Taxipete29 wrote: »

1, What would you say has been the biggest help to you in developing your game over the years e.g books, forums or just playing alot??

the only poker book I've read is stotblooms Omaha one. For me playing a lot and I talk a lot about the game with others. The biggest influence on how my game has developed would how much i think about the game and mistakes I've made, reading forums are more prevalent lately with me also.

2, Do you ever think that you would make the switch to becoming a predominantly cash player or do you just prefer tourneys?

I've touched on this in a ? from flushdraw, I just prefer tournaments but I think that its inevitable that at some stage in the future I will play cash. I know I'm stupid for not having done so already but just keep putting it off but the cash will be in support of my tournaments when I do rather then instead.

3, At what point during your playing time did you feel you were good enough to turn pro?

Well I had made nice profit each month for the nine months before I gave up my job. The day after I got a €20,000 touch I jacked the job. It was more about jacking a job I hated then becoming a poker pro. I was totally naive if I'm honest and without a plan, I just wanted out of what I was doing.

4, If someone felt that in time they had the skills to turn pro, playing mostly tourneys, would you have any advice for them?

Have A back up whether its consistently beating cash stts whatever. I know I will win over the coming year playing mtts but the variance is big and you just cant rely on a consistent income, you just dont know when your next score is coming and without a backup a bad run can destroy your confidence and bankroll. I play much smaller online then live, these days a €200 entry is about the smallest game I'll bother with live but I'm quiet happy to grind a few 1000 low stakes stts or play small satellites online. I can guarantee myself €2500/€4000 a month to keep me in smokes petrol and pay the bills, the liferake. Your live tournament roll should be maintained separately. A mistake I make when I'm well rolled is I stop the grind and probably don't play as well either live simply because I'm flush, very amateurish but something I will sort, as I said in my last answer I've gotten into this in a very Ad hoc manner and I'm learning all the time, If I'm honest its probably blind luck that I didn't go bust at some stage

Thank you in advance.

pleasure

.

Shortstack · 27-01-2008 04:28AM

Nicky, well done for doing this.

1: When was the first time you ever played a hand of poker and what were you initial thoughts on the game?

2: If you were asked to compile a top 20 Irish Live MTT players where would you put yourself in the list. What about Pat?

3: What is about your game that has made you so consistent?

4: Why are you so offended about being labelled as a "character" on the Irish poker scene. Do you feel it detracts from your image as a successful player? Would you rather be a money making "character" or a losing "He's a great player"?

5: If you were to live your life again from the age of 11 and were allowed to make only one different choice down the route of your life what would it be?

nicnicnic · 27-01-2008 05:03AM

Shortstack wrote: »

Nicky, well done for doing this.

1: When was the first time you ever played a hand of poker and what were you initial thoughts on the game?

2: If you were asked to compile a top 20 Irish Live MTT players where would you put yourself in the list. What about Pat?

lol first two names on the list, ill get to the rest in time

3: What is about your game that has made you so consistent?

4: Why are you so offended about being labelled as a "character" on the Irish poker scene. Do you feel it detracts from your image as a successful player? Would you rather be a money making "character" or a losing "He's a great player"?

5: If you were to live your life again from the age of 11 and were allowed to make only one different choice down the route of your life what would it be?

.

Flushdraw · 27-01-2008 05:54AM

Cheers Nicky...great read so far...

Oh and the questions from Michael McGumshious..obv for the purposes of a bet with Ste05, technically MrMcGumshious didnt post on boards....

LuckyLloyd · 27-01-2008 10:24AM

This post has been deleted.

Hectorjelly · 27-01-2008 10:38AM

Describe some of your most interesting experiences from Henrys

Do you still listen to house music?

Give a broad explanation of some of your Speech Play tactics

9 handed tournament, you have about 50 blinds. Would you prefer kk on the button or AA utg?

Where was that stooped and mealy-colored old man I used to call poppa when the merry-go-round broke down?

nicnicnic · 27-01-2008 12:19PM

jbravado wrote: »

First of all nicicnic thanks a million for doing this.
We have played together once in a lively cash game In Waterford fwiw.Gentleman.

NP & TY

Anywho q.

Have you ever wished that you never started playing poker?

god no

What do you think you would be doing if you hadnt?

I either be working in accounting which really isnt me, or lecturing which would be ok as the holidays are great.

Do you have a mortgage/ property? It always amazes me amount of poker players who have all this loot but no real possesions or assets.

beyond the scope of what I'm prepared to answer but I don't have any rent/debts worries

Where do you see yourself in 5 years-pokerwise?

think I've covered this one

..

nicnicnic · 27-01-2008 12:28PM

strewelpeter wrote: »

Thanks for doing this Nicky.
I still think the funniest thing I ever saw at a poker table was a couple of years ago was out in citywest with you acting about five times drunker than you actually were and putting this English 'pro' on monkey tilt and him calling for a ruling on you for playing with a dirty stack, he got the ruling after which your stack kept getting accidentally knocked over, You probably had to be there but I still laugh every time I think of it and I see you putting on your cheeky monkey face and yer man turning redder than a tomato.

I dont think I was acting, I was that drunk. Was it the long one out of that hit squad crew. I don't drink anymore when playing after I misread my hand at the first GJP festival main event.

Anyway a couple of questions to start off:

In a large buy in Tourney are you willing to take a race for all your chips in the early levels?

I am at all levels really

What do you think of the proposition that even for very well bankrolled pros regularly playing $5000 + events that the only way to level the variance is to satellite into them?

Colclough was saying this in a recent interview about the EPT buyins I read.
Totally agree sponsorship/staking or satellites are the only realistic option

..

nicnicnic · 27-01-2008 12:34PM

bops wrote: »

good morning nicholas and gl with this

ty

you played a small 50 quid tourney last night, from the 32 runners, at a guess, how many of them knew the basic fundamentals of NLHE?

I donno 31 of then out lasted me anyhow

where did you finish?

see above

you then choose to play snooker for $$$ against an unknown opponent, how did that fair out?

not very good I'm only playing Flipper from now on

you then turned your attention to a cash game, from the 10 players at the table, how many of them knew the basics of NLHE?

just you
:rolleyes:

3 limpers to you in the cutoff and you look down at 9c2s, you forget yourself for a minute and think you're playin blackjack, or you remember reading something about position and you raise it to 11 and get 3 callers

Flop comes Js 8h 3s (pot 47)

The 3 callers check to you and you bet 25

Fold Fold and the final player anounces allin for 48 ie 23 more

what do you do and why??

Call sure you can always hit the 2 high flush; you sick fcuker

What was the end result in the cash game?

a) get felted in some riduculous hand and leave? or
b) trebble up in one/two riduculous hands and leave? or
c) the 1st part of b) followed by a)?

I won back my snooker and tournament loses

And finally, my mini-challange starts today, do you think i will be playing in the IO this year? are you playing?

yes and yes

cya later in cork buddy

I did and wow you cashed

bops!

bed time, what strange hours we keep

Macspower · 27-01-2008 02:06PM

Only getting to this one now.... Great read Nicky...

No real questions that havn't been covered...

WD and contnued success.... you've come a long way from the CPT days.... lol

Mac

Goodluck2me · 27-01-2008 10:59PM

only aces wrote:

if you keep playing until ur 65 do you think you could become as good a player as butch?

I think he answered this in the "plans for the next year".

dannydiamond · 27-01-2008 11:02PM

Hectorjelly wrote: »

Describe some of your most interesting experiences from Henrys

ahh Henrys,sweet sweet memories....

ArmaniJeanss · 27-01-2008 11:51PM

What did you dislike about the Rio?

Why did you consider Vegas a 'sh1thole' (i read your blog !), personally I'd have thought if a poker player /gambler dislikes Vegas then he is going to struggle to find places he does like.

Do you think Irish players chances at the WSOP would be increased if they did far less 'socialising'?. Would you ever consider an ultra-professional approach yourself one year?

Any fundamental rules of HoldEm you would like changed (for example I've never liked counterfeiting and think that 22 should beat Ax on a double-paired board)?

Thanks for doing this by the way, a very good read.

nicnicnic · 28-01-2008 01:55AM

I'm not in any form for answering ?s atm and wouldn't give them the attention they deserve, I'll get stuck in and do the lot tomorrow.

nicnicnic · 28-01-2008 11:16AM

TheRock wrote: »

Fair play Nicky, Few for you here;

hows it going Alan

1. I know you are comfortable playing SNGs and can consistently beat and make a nice wage from them. However, do you feel that these can only take you so far and the real good money is in cash games? Would your time be better spent learning to beat these consistently?

I'd say if I was predominantly a on line player that I would be playing mostly cash by now. Theres no guarantee that if i made the switch that I will beat say 2/4 3/6 and its going to take a lot of work to do so these days as its widely accepted that the games are getting harder all the time. As I said already I see online as an income supplement. I want to play around the 20 hour a week mark , now beating $100 stts for just 6% with a 40% rakeback will give me $84 To $100 an hour rate which is grand for me. It would take me a lot of work to hit that rate on cash I think but at some stage during the year I'll play 30,000 $1/$2 cash hands and if that goes ok follow it with 30,000 $2/$4, just to see if I can grow to enjoy and become comfortable with the cash dynamic.

2. Do you think the cost of major live events are gone too expensive (IO, EPT, IPC etc)?

EPTs, well the €8000 ones are for sure, The IO is increasing its buyin every year but its the one every Irish player wants to play. I think whats important for a tournament like the irish open is the amount of people that Satt in. Now at €4500 its becoming borderline. Take the EPT Dublin this year, there was hardly any live satts around the country. I think players are prepared to spend around the €200/300 on a live satt which meant one ticket would be generated for every 40/27 players re the EPT. Players see this as to small a chance to get in and as such there was hardly no live satts for the EPT last year

The IO had a huge number of live satts, every club in the country ran one, the Emporium generated around 30 tickets alone. Most would of generated a 1/12 ratio of entries, this year its going to be a 1/15 which is acceptable because of the prestige of the event and the place it hold in our minds.If it goes to €6000 this may not be the case. The €2000 for the IPC is very acceptable and I think this tournament will be the benefactor is the entry cost of the IO keeps rising

3. Are there too many €1000plus tournaments in Ireland?

No I probably don't think theres enough. I'm not going to count side events at the IO or EPT so last year we had five events that cost either €1000/€1500 ( the IPC and GJP the two Macau festivals and the one in the emporium ). this year we have more with JP and bigslick having €1k games planned. I think there is a real opportunity for all the promoter's to come together and tie all these type of games together into a type of tour ( along the lines of the of the GUKPT ). Have one every six weeks rather then them all falling on top of each other like the joke we had last year, and have one of the events as a bigger buy in grand final.

4. Have the structures now gone over the top? (I.e. 20k/50k starting stacks, 1hr plus levels, everything’s a 3 day event).

One thing about the Irish promoters is they are all open to experimenting with the structures. We lead the way in this country with value structures. GJP lead the way in this department with the Nov 06 festival with the 15000 starting stack one hour clock. Others have tweaked it and even improved on it. I firmly believe that the optimum structure has been reached with the 1500 starting stack 60minute game one hour clock and all levels included. I think anything more is two much but this is just an opinion and my mind is certainly open on the new experimental structures coming up, I'll just say thats its my perception that 20k/50k will be to much but I'm open to be proved wrong and my mind is certainly not set on it having not played the structures

5. Do you get fed up playing poker?

Yes but never for more then 2/3 days

6. Do you think your better off spending your time playing online or live?

well I used to spend a lot of time playing live small buy in tournaments, these days my time is better spent on line rather then these as that type of game holds very little interest for me anymore.

7. Any opinions on the way Blazin Aces in progressing as club?

It would be unfair for me to comment on this as I'm a very infrequent visitor to blazinaces these days. I don't get the same buzz in the place as I used to before but that's probably because I,m not the regular I was and things move on. I will say that I think the league has been diluted to much. That league produced two final tablets at last years IO from a freeroll. This year the top X get a €300 satellite entry, very different IMO. It was the old league that brought me back night after night and I used to try in the small buy in events for the league points. These days on the odd time I play the €50 wednesday game I find I just spew my chips and go home to play online. Having said that I made a lot of good friends through the place and I will always support any bigger buy in or satellite games that are run there

28-01-2008 11:58AM

This post has been deleted.

ocallagh · 28-01-2008 12:01PM

Did you eat an entire pack of Flahavan's this morning?

What other experiences in life have helped you as a poker player?

I totally agree Vegas is a ****hole, would you go back again? And if so, how would you do it?

nicnicnic · 28-01-2008 01:01PM

The Al Lad wrote: »

Hi Nicky thanks for doing this, it's probably my fault as I started the "Can we have ... " thread

NP Al & TY

1. Do you go on tilt ???

Yes but not very often. I did last night though, I was just settling in to play the million having gotten up at 7 showered/feed and feeling on top form. I enter a $100 mtts while waiting first hand I raise UTG with AK one caller then the button ships, I had seen the guy play before and snap, he has A3 and hits the 3 on the river. Now this usually doesn't affect me but it did a bit last night and while I did nothing that bad I didn't play well in the million either and went out after about 90 mins with an over pair that i should of gotten away from. I then decide to take an hour break and put in a session of stts ( usually 20/30 of them.

I'm messing around and decide to watch the end of the irish open satt in ipoker. With 8 players left and thechamp87 in the BB theres 8 players left and seven packages, there's a player all in in the small blind with less then the small blind and only one of the six players call, Now the blinds are 2k/4k and the next smallest stacks are circa 35k. Its just so completely retarded that all the players don't call here and check the guy out. Well this just blows my mind and there's absolutely no point in playing now, in the end I took two sleeping pills and went back to bed having been up no more then 8 hours.

Live the only thing that tilts me is slow players. I don't mean people taking there time on a hard decision but rather the guys that takes two minutes to fold every hand preflop, this gets to me.

2. If so, whats your best way of controlling it ???

online I think you really just gotta stop playing, Flips or small stakes turbos help some but knocking it on the head is the answer. Being aware that your tilting is half the battle though I think.

3.What do you find is the best way of getting through a spell where absolutely nothing is going right for you ???

I've had some very bad spells but I've never lost confidence of doubted that I was a winning player. I just played through it at times it feels that a bad run will never end but a winning players in his heart knows that it will and it can change so fast in this game.

4. Do you get bored playing so much poker, especially when your card dead for hours ???

It can be hard at times especially live when your only seeing 30 or so hands an hour. I try concentrate harder on whats going on at the table

5. How good has Pat Storan become over the last year ???

I'm not comfortable talking about a friends game here that I probable know better then anyone because of the time we spend travelling together. But I will say that he is a class player and the level he consistently plays at is Quiet amazing as he just started playing bigger buy in live games and doesn't play online, hence would have only a fraction of the lifetime hands of others. His greatest assets are his intelligence, competitiveness and I have never seen anyone as fast to pick up on and adapt to his opponents game. He is fairly rocky and almost never get it in with the worst of it.

6. Do have any regrets about shipping with 2 2 against de Wolfe in the IO last year ???

God no, its 100% the right play, my only regret on the hand is that I didn't hold 55 instead of 22

7. Will you ever try the no cards trick again or would it be just too much for your ageing heart ??? ( Joe told me to say that "ageing" bit)

I didn't try it it just happened, I don't think I've sat at a poker table since in Ireland without this hand being brought up. Here's what happened as I wrote it just after the event

The hand that has received a huge amount of attention is the one where I ended up with my chips in the middle with no cards. It popped up in a number of magazine articles and many sites. I have seen a number of versions a couple even suggesting that I knew that I had no cards when I pushed which is total rubbish.

Well the way it happened is he raised 36k in seat 3 from UTG and I pushed from seat 4 for 140k I had 7 rows of 20 1k chips lined up laterally in front of me the chips never entered the centre. I put my cards to the left of my stack and when the dealer was sweeping in the other player's cards he leaned across and took mine as well. I just leaned in and covered the area where the cards were. De Wolfe was staring me down for a good three minutes before he folded. When the hand was over I let out a sigh of relief and said to the dealer ffs watch what your doing but ultimately no blame could be placed on the dealer here its 100% my responsibility to protect my cards. Expect me to use a card protector in future.
8. If you had a gun with just one bullet left would you prefer to shoot

a) Roland De Wolfe
or
b) goodluck2me

one of those amour piercing ones would be nice I could just line both up then

9. Thanks for doing this, Cheers

np

Q&A with nicnicnic

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