Q&A with nicnicnic

ocallagh wrote: »

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

lol well yesterday morning I had a spicy tomato hot cup followed by coffee and a slice of xmas cake, I have since done some shopping

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

I've been a gambler all my life so picked up the probability aspect fairly quickly

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

It is a ****hole but I think I love the place as well, six to ten days I could handle the strip anything more it would have to be a house like we did last year. It was so good to be able to leave all the madness behind and chill in the house or by the pool when you wanted

...

Excellent read Nicky fair play...

1) Final table, 7 left out of 130+ players in a €1k event, your 3rd in chips. Winner gets €45k 2nd €25k etc etc Other 4 players below you evenly stacked 6th and 7th treble their buy in so profit of €2k for them then money gets nice. 2 day event.. Whats your game plan? Attack and destroy or Chill???

2) 1 limper same tourny, 4 players left you hold KK on the button and raise. SB & BB fold. Limper re raises all in and has you covered. Call fold or do you break your fingers getting your chips over the line?

3) How highly do you rate Tramore as a sea side resort?

4) Do you love Dunmore east as much as I do?

5) What level of income/earnings/winnings should justify a player turning pro.

6) If you were to play live full time 5 nights a week for 48 weeks of the year, tournys limited to €200+ buy ins at weekends and playing cash 3 out of other 5 nights for 8 hours per night what level of earnings could a player of your standard expect? Serious question and if you want to answer the question you can put your answer in income brackets i.e €50k / €70k income €80k to €100k income etc etc.

7) Is Gavin your bitch and is Pat Storan jealous or do you both just spit roast valor and be done with it?

8) The night i offered you and Pat a bed for the night would you have

a) Stayed on the couch or

b) Crept into bed with Pat in the dead of night and said nothing.

9) How long does it take you to get to grips with the dynamics of your table and how do you remember this information on each player.

10) Point out a weakness in my game from the limited table time we have.

Cheers Man. Up the Deisce.

Jay

WOULD YOU BUY A CAR FROM DAVE MASTERS ???

kakak1 wrote: »

nicky must still be in the feathers

just woke up Dave, late getting home last night from emporium, 12 left with 4 IO tickets up for grabs I push 37k into a 26k pot with top two on the turn and get call by a J high flush draw, was pretty gutted as would of given me 110k with 500 in play and a lock on one I'm sure if he misses.

Joe Anna is like my sister and we all know that incest is fairly popular where you come from were much more civilized down this part of the country.

Jay oh Jay you silly boy expect some interesting replies later. I've some sh1t to do but will be up most of the night so will try answer all the questions by morning

nicnicnic wrote: »

just woke up Dave, late getting home last night from emporium, 12 left with 4 IO tickets up for grabs I push 37k into a 26k pot on the turn and get call by a J high flush draw, was pretty gutted as would of given me 110k with 500 in play and a lock on one I'm sure if he misses.

heard about it. You'll get one.

kakak1 wrote: »

Great thread Nicky, well done


tks Dave


When did you first play Texas Hold 'Em & where, was it online or live.

As I said the first hand I played was sept 04, maxed a credit card then used to play freerolls, I used to lodge the odd few quid in ladbrokes but feel I only started playing properly online when I made a neteller deposit in june 06. I've withdrawn over €40,000 from that deposit and played the wsop main event + side event and an EPT package, which to me is very good as I have never played big as such online and consider myself to be still only learning and having a long way to go yet with online poker.

Live the first game I played was in alfie hales at the back of the tower hotel Oct 04. Richie and Keith from bigslick used to run it every second monday night. It was a €16 FO, the chips were small laminated cards with numbers printed on them. I won the game regularly and remember winning the xmas 04 game for a huge €300, I can remember Buda showing me a $1000 cheque he had won on party at the time and I was very impressed. The following april blazing opened and this was when I started playing and winning regularly ( I remember being very embarrassed getting beat HU by an old fcuker in one of the firsts tournaments in the club). The first big game I played was in galway june 2005 a €400 pokerevents game and have tried to play any big game in the country since.


How did you do in your first few games, did it come naturally or did you struggle for a while

I think I covered this above but I would say winning came naturally, yes

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bantee wrote: »

Hi Nicky,

Thanks for answering the questions so far. Just have a couple for you on live play. If similar ones have been answered already you can ignore this.

YW

1. How much of your success in live tournaments do you put down to the "feel factor" and "gut instinct" part of your game; on knowing when to bet and raise to accumulate chips from opponents?

There was a good discussion about this about 12 months ago. I think the feel/instinct factor is probably more about the subconscious mind making good decisions from experience

2. Can you tell by body language, a person's eyes, or even the way they pick up chips to bet that they have a weak hand and its time to raise them? And does this aspect of anyone's game need to improve to be successful in live tournaments?

there are definitely physical tells and the eyes can be and are for many a tell box, I'm sure you can be a winning live player without ever picking up on a physical tell. Also, I think its easier to sence/see strength then weakness generally.

3. Can you spot the weaker players after a few minutes on the table and do you mark those out to gather chips from and increase your stack?

I will always go after easy chips on a table, watch every card shown and hands that go to showdown, this is where you get the most information, go back over the hand and consider the actions on each street, you can learn so much about an opponents thought process or lack of. Also identify the card-dependant players these are easy chips but also the ones you can fold to without a niggle of doubt that you were ahead

4. Do you get an adrenaline rush when you pull off a crazy bluff in a big tournament?


You should never make crazy bluffs, moves should be well thought out and calculated. There must be sound rational before you try bluff someone, you read them as weak, you know there very tight and can only have marginal holdings because of there betting so its very unlikely you will be looked up, there perception of you will warrant a big hand for them to call ect ect.

I have spent hours setting up plays but when one works it is a good feeling but don't wallow in it there's a game to be won

Thanks,
bantee

NP

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smurph wrote: »

Great Read Nicky, and your blog is excellent btw...

Tks Smurph, sorry to here Martin just missed out on a ticket last night. you whispered something in his ear at the table when I was his button, was it don't let that fcuker bully you ?


Just a few questions....

When your out smoking do you sometimes wonder "mmm what cards are being mucked on me".


I started chewing nicorette so I'm away a lot less these days, but my outlook was always that I could of been busted as easily as missed good hands while away

Do you take advantage of players who look like there going to explode unless they can get out and have a "smoke"..

lol do you

What do you think of the recent "tournament players" V "Cash players" etc., debate on boards.

I thought the most recent one went a little far but I've been involved in quiet a few and find them great entertainment

do you think that players who play mostly online, find it hard to adjust to the slowness of live play...

I think some adjust easily but others do have real trouble. I feel there is a fair difference between live and online

Whats the funniest thing you've heard at a poker table.

I dunno really, its not on the table but when Pat won the simon charity event Padraig's speech when being interviewed for the TV. Padraig's pissed and standing with his arm around Pat " this is exactly what the tournament needs. last year we had Noel Furlong a former wsop winner win it and now this year some fcuker from down the country takes it " Jessy May then jumps in with " finally after all that waterford has done for poker, poker can give something back to waterford".

Whats the weirdest thing you've ever heard at a poker table.

Dunno really there was some strange stuff going on with that eskimo guy at this years wsop
Is Valor really as good a player as I think he is?

yes but he probably isn't as good yet as he thinks he is, ah balls I probably shouldn't of said that, he will come in now with loads of tricky strategy type spots

do you coach
(I don't mean that smartly. Have you ever taken a player under your wing and helped them with their game).

Well not formally but I've helped and discuss the game with many people

You never really seem that interested in the early levels in deep stack tournaments, i.e. your more than often away from the table, is that a tactic or just the way it is?


not really a tactic but I am aware that I can often play very spewy in early levels

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poorbarman wrote: »

Brilliant stuff,great read well done Sir.........

TYVM

bottom feeder wrote: »

Nicky great read and fair play for your honesty and openness / Haven’t really got any productive questions that weren’t already covered, just want to wish you all the best in 2008 & I hope you continue your success mate.

“P.S. I heard you were applauding me on my 2nd & 3rd place in the one tournament LOL”

Wes

Tks Wes

that was some performance in a live events Wes lolmultiliveaccountingdonkaments

semibluff wrote: »

very good read so far nicky, fair play to ya
I'll throw a few random questions at you.

Tks Donal

You say if you wernt into poker, you'd work in a bank job - isnt there something else you would have liked to do?

I said I'd probably be doing bank jobs not a bank job, I meant with a shotgun. Seriously if I wasn't playing I'd be working in accounting or teaching

Have you ever travelled - such as the australia trip?

No I worked in waterford crystal from the age of 16 to 25 which is the time most will travel. I'm from a different era and the most travelling friends of mine from that time did was to london to work on building sites. In the 80s people immigrated not travelled. I had lots of two week med holidays that was about it two weeks in Ibiza was always enough for me.

I often find that i couldn't be bothered replying to some theory threads, that although i may know the "correct" answer in some situations, or have the bones for a decent argument in others, my manner in structuring my comments into defined arguments is lacking - unlike some other posters, and this has me not bothering as such - Are you in the same boat??

Yeah I suppose,

If not can you explain why you don't post as much in the theory section, as when it comes to tournie situations people would obv value your and ollies opinions highly (amongst others)

there seems to be a lot of jargon needed to post in the strategy forums emanating from 2p2 and I just cant be bothered learning it to fit in with the crew. I do know that "polarizing your range" and "defining your hand" seem to be the latest in terms. In reality a lot of the people I play against will read it and its -Ev


What handicap do you play off in golf?

I've never handed in three cards to get one, I'm not anygood but love playing typically I shoot between 90 and 100 although my greatest moment was the day I shot 83 and pawned Duncan who used to own blazingaces, he gave me ten shots and I beat him by over 20, a sweet memory. there's a crew of us that play in the summer and have great craic I love playing

Would you rather go to the ryder cup in america, all ireland final were waterford are the favourites, champions league final or the WSOP 2008 (your not playing in the ME)

I'll take Vegas as long as I don't have to rail the thing



What was the omaha book like you read, and do you think you;; ever get your head around it?

Yeah I thought it was a good read I'm not as bad at Omaha as those who have played with me drunk think and can have beaten 1/2 over a good sample online


Tell us a story that still makes you laugh when you look back on it, something of the same varietty as the geansai story in waterford last year.

I'm gonna be lazy here and post one I wrote in the blog a few weeks ago

The first real poker tournament that I ever played was in june 2005 in the westwood hotel galway; a €400 two day event. The previous Monday I had started a new job with an accounting firm in Dungarvan. I was told I had the job that friday, great but dungarvan is 30 miles from waterford which posed a slight problem. I had never driven a car in my life before that friday when I bought one to drive to the new job in that Monday.

The next friday I rang in sick ( great commitment I know ) and head off, new map in glove compartment, just me in my little motor at 10 a m for the 4 hour or so drive to the €400 event. I get to Limerick about 12.30 and the traffic in the city has me stressed. I konk out at a traffic lights in the city center, restart the car in gear and bash into the car in front of me. Aggggg the guys good about it and I give him my number and drive around Limerick for about another hour totally lost before I get out of the city. Don't know where the **** I am now but just happy to get out of the traffic.

About 45 minutes later I enter a built up area again, surely haven't made Galway yet. To right, 10 minutes later I'm back at the traffic lights that I bashed into the guy 2 hours previously; Aggggggg. I'm totally stressed by now veins bulging in my head and need to get out of the car. I stop outside a church and find what follows a bit surreal. "You give love a bad name" by Bon Jovi is blasting from the church. I go to investigate and the church is full of bikers with the bride walking down the aisle to the tune lol. This for some reason totally relieves the stress and I head off again and finally reach the venue about three hours later but well in time for the seven start.

Think there was around 140 starters but I'm amazed by the whole set up. Blazingaces the club in Waterford had been open about two months but a €20 FO was the biggest game there at the time so a tournament on this scale had me astounded. I can only remember two hands from the event, my first and exit hand. The exit hand was losing to a runner runner flush with about 30 players left. It was to set the theme for many of my visits to Galway but I should of known that after my journey up.

do you regret not playing the ETP dublin seeing you were in such a rich vein of form??

Not at all it was the right decision

Poker players tend to destroy their bank roll with sports bets - is it only those with bad bankroll management that do this? do you bet on horses/football alot of golf??


I posted here a long time ago about how I had been a compulsive gambler all my life and stopped when I started playing poker seriously. Gambling has gotten me into some bad places through my life and when I came back from Vegas last summer it crept back into my life. before I knew it I was backing horses regularly. I dented my roll but stopped before Xmas and its 100% sure that if I didnt stop I'd of busted myself. Tilt in poker is bad but a degenerate gambler tilting while punting with lots of cash is a different animal all together. Golf punting is grand its not like racing where there's one every 10 min but I have to stay away from horses. Its a bit like a smack addiction and poker is my methadone


And finally do you know the whereabouts of mr flash??? we miss him


he is closer then u think, has been posting under a different alias

thanks nicky

np