Doke is in the well

YULETIRED wrote: »

Dara, this is v. interesting stuff. and I've haven't been called endearing since I bought me auntie a bottle of vodka,,,(the ol dipso)

Gl in city west i'll pop up for a side event and to watch you and nicnic heads up. and now for the 'other' type of questions ( you dont have to answer)

1. pick 3 females you'd play strip poker with...

From the poker world, Vicky Coren, Katja Thater and the stripper-turned-player whose name I don't know but who asked me what colour underwear I was wearing when I arrived at her table in the Venetian.

2. If you walked into the wrong hotel room and saw nicnicnic and flipper in a passionate embrace, would you a) shut the door quietly and hope they didnt hear, b) snap it and post it in the bad beat section c) pee down yer leg like an over zealous ultra runner

a. Young love is always so sweet and should be left unbothered.

3. yer gobby English mate, he seem an interesting type but have you ever thought.....SHUT THE FK UP, IM GOING INSANE LISTENING TO YOU, GIVE ME 5 MNUTES TO FKIN THINK ABOUT ANSWERING YER LAST POINT BEFORE YOU HIT ME MORE ...AAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHH.

Only about every 8 seconds I'm in his company.

4. richie kavanagh or daniel o' donnell..

Oh God. Must I? OK, Richie then. Bit of humour at least.

5 give me 5 famous people you admire and why

David Bowie (music and sense of adventure)
Nicky Power (dashing good looks and raw animal charisma)
Cameron Diaz (legs)
Vicky Coren (sense of humour and intellect)
Barack Obama (intellect)

6. Do you know what a Jade Goody is?

I know who she is but not what.

7. fav types of book and fav author, fav wine whilst yer at it (DRINK MAN)

General literature, Samuel Beckett (if I must pick someone living, I'll go with my good friend and international ultra team mate Michael Collins), Bordeaux.

8. Who would win in a fight between you n yer bro, he told me he'd kick yer ass.

I'm a lover not a fighter but I would totally kick his ass.

9 based on a book release this week....5 words to sum up yer life..(think i know whats coming)

With a cast of thousands.

10. when was the last time you fell on the ground laughing

Opening ceremony of last year's World 100K's. We were being marched through a town in Holland and between Michael Collins holding the flag and composing an imaginary blog entry ("As I held the flag aloft, I thought of the thousands, nay, millions who had gone before and my heart swelled with pride. It was just like the Olympics....only it wasn't") and Marty Rea generally taking the piss (like when a Dutch marching band appeared, Marty shouted in his Belfast accent "Orangemen! Reroute them!") it was non stop hilarity.

I love Britney, do you? (say no and you'll pay)

Oh yes. I think she's tremendous, like a female Elvis only way better, but then I've always had a soft spot for obviously ****ed up females.

Requiem4adream wrote: »

Dara have you ever tried Triathlon? was thinking particularly of Endurance Triathlons for you!

No. I can't swim unfortunately.

Triathletes tend be good all rounders rather than very good at any one discipline so I suspect my body type is too specialised.

con_leche wrote: »

Thanks for doing this.

1. Sickest training session ever?

I ran the Connemara ultra marathon purely as a training run last year (was building up for a 100K) so I suppose that was pretty sick.

Not counting races, in terms of distance, I suppose any one of the 6 hours run I've done, or the 3 long runs in one day.

Personally I find the speed sessions the toughest though. One that stands out was in the runup to last year's World 24's that involved herself blowing a whistle every 30 seconds as I alternated between flat out sprinting and recovery jogging for an hour.

2. Recount a hand you played very well.

Late on in GUKPT Newcastle, I raised under the gun with 10's. One of the blinds chose to defend. I flopped top set. Normally I'd bet a set (make it look like a cbet, particularly one this well disguised) but from his reaction I was pretty sure he'd missed completely so I checked. Turn was a J and I could see it had hit him because his first reaction was to go to bet, then he thought better of it, so I thought he had a J but didn't like his kicker. When he checked, I bet exactly the right amount to get him to make a crying call, at the same time effectively committing him to call the river if a blank fell. I got him to call off the rest of his chips on the river with QJ.

3. Best live read you ever made?

I made a very good one yesterday against an English hyper agro. I basically made a hero call with effectively bottom pair after I reviewed the betting and successfully worked out at the end that he couldn't have any of the hands he was representing and I picked up a foot tell indicating he was weak.

4. How much weight do you lose in a 24 hour run.

Almost none, I think. In theory you'd lose about 3 kilos but you eat about 20,000 calories to compnsate during the run. There would be some loss due to fluid loss but that would come back as soon as you rehydrate.

5. What % body fat do you have.

10%.

6. What mental routines do you perform to aid concentration/distract your self on long runs?

MP3 player.

7. Why is there so much value on the GUKPT?

Online qualifiers mostly, I think.

8. Favourite book?

"Molloy" by Samuel Beckett

9. Favourite film?

Paris Texas.

10. Best place to run?

Phoenix Park.

rounders123 wrote: »

Hi Dara your a great man.

1.)I ran the Raheny 5 mile road race the year President Mc Elise officially started it. I didnt win it though, some african ringer did but did you run that year and if so where did you come?

I don't think I ran it that year, I think myself and the brother were put in charge of recording finishers' numbers in the shoots so I probably shouted your number to him.

I've run it on a number of occasions. 5 miles is way too short for me to be competitive so I generally come in somewhere around 29 or 30 minutes. I was on a medal winning team one year as 4th scorer.

2.)Any Dublin athletic club rivalries going on. For instance i notice little or no Clonliffe Harrriers compete in the Raheny races?.

Raheny-Clonliffe is the big one. The fact that the two clubs are only a mile or two apart and therefore compete for members in the same catchment area, that both see themselves as primarily long distance clubs, and that Dick Hooper and Gerry Kiernan were at their peak together etc. etc. all adds to the pot.

3.) Any stories about giving a jumped up self precieved hotshot bad advice before a race or anything along the lines?.

No, but I did hear Michael Collins winding up a self important American runner to the point where he decided he should no longer talk to his teammates because they didn't deserve him.

4.)Did you ever run with weight on your back in any sort of SAS style challenge or anything of the sort?. Ive heard of of some really sh!t runners who have excelled once lumbering weight in their back. Any truth in this?.

Never tried this, my coach wouldn't let me, as it'd mess my running form. Even a light back pack would.

Wouldn't surprise me if there are bad runners who are good at this as I imagine it's quite a different skill from normal running. I worked with a guy once who was very good at this (he'd been in the army). He was built for rugby.

5.)Most players have to be some sort of degeneratives to play poker but do you think tournament directors are degens in their own way aswell.?

Worse. Poker stars are like the porn actress, tournament directors are like the dirty old man in the mac who owns the "art" cinema.

6.) Do you ever order a beverage whilst playing and if so do you have your tip ready when she comes delivering or do you start rooting for change in your pocket only when she arrives?

Have it ready.

6.)Any sports or teams you like to watch outside athletics?.

I'll watch almost any sport but particular faves would be soccer (Arsenal fan), rugby, boxing, golf, motor sport, women's beach volleyball, snooker, tennis and cricket.

7.)Bekele in his prime or Gebreselassie in his prime racing eachother over 10,000m on track in moderate conditions who wins?.

Bekele in a sprint finish. If the sub 2 hour marathon is to be run in our lifetime, he's the man to do it.

RoundTower wrote: »

where did you play chess? I don't recognise your name but you could have been playing before my time.

I was a member of the Phibsboro club for a while in the mid 80s and played mostly on the Irish scene. I eventually drifted into correspondence chess and played that exclusively until I gave up chess completely in the early 90s.

If you know the chess scene, you probably know Mark Quinn. I actually beat Mark on three occasions (admittedly he was just a kid at the time).

My brother (Sean) was the captain of the UCD team in the late 90s/early 00s so it's more likely you'd have run into him.

doke wrote: »

Vicky Coren (sense of humour and intellect)

what? what? what? no no no.. did you see the coverage of the recent monte carlo ept?? she's a headwrecker..she's not funny or clever!!!??!! aaagh!!!

i have no questions for you because i dont know who you are but goodluck in the running+poker etc you seem like a sound guy

Who are the five best TD's you've played under and in what order?

Hi Dara,

I dont think we've ever had the pleasure or displeasure as some might say of meeting. From those i knwo though they couldnt speak higher of you.

Just a few quick questions.

I recently started running albeit in the hope of getting fit for rugby/life in general as opposed to marathons and the likes. I saw you mentioning that for someone starting back out they should do 3-4 miles 3-4 times a week. Is this not a bit much for someone just starting out. Should someone not be starting out with a less intensive maybe 2k-3k and gradually increasing it from there. Purely from a motivational point fo view if someone has never really ran before they are going to find it quite difficult to do 4 miles 4 times a week and therefore may not put the effort in.

Do you think there has been way too much emphasis on going to the gym in order to attain that gym physique which seems to be becoming more and more popular with us younger folks. You know the guys with the huge arms etc.. In my opinion gone are the days where people just go running in their area or to the local pool for an hours swim. If you're not in the gym lifting weights then your not fit seems to be the mentality,maybe thats just me though and with who im surrounded with.

poker wise. since the poker community is quite small in ireland and dublin in particular do you think that there is a huge amount of back slapping. depending on the time of the year the best player around type threads that seem to pop up here seem to be populated by whomever had the big touch the most recently and who is the flavour of the week. You yourself have a reputation of being an excellent player which is well deserved by all accounts but you talked about playing the deepstack festival and reading about it here on boards. If i remember correctly you werent exactly considered to be a factor at the particular time just some "old guy who was running like god".(sorry if that comes across bad)

So whats my question eh....im not too sure now perhaps its two fold firstly do you think we celebrate mediocrity far too easy as the majority players I have come across are terrible but unlike the equally terrible english people we irish have an aggression which masks over our lack of fundamental knowledge. We are aggressive in spots without knowing why we should be.

Secondly would you have prefferred to not have "come out of the closet" so to speak here on boards. If you could go back to being that unknown person in tourneys would you? Do you think it has had a negative or positive effect on how you're perceived at the table?

Oh and cash, any particular reason as to why you dont play that much of it? When you first started out and smurph was pwning you in the tourneys did you have any aspirations to be playing cash in the fitz or was it always just to play the tournaments that there is around. In my opinion i think the reason a lot of people dont take to cash games is because they see them as something to do after busting out of a tournament thus meaning they are taking the negativity of being knocked out of the tourny to the cash game resulting in a less than desireable attitude to it. Would you ever consider going to a festival and just solely focussing on playing cash?

Gross, your spoiling an otherwise great thread

El Stuntman wrote: »

hi Doke,

only saw this now, insightful stuff so far.

Just a couple of questions:

what does Mrs Doke make of you being effectively a pro\semipro poker player now? Any tension conventions at home over this career redirection? If no, what's your secret?

Thanks for the kind comments.

Mrs. Doke is fine in general with it generally although she does get very tense before the bigger tournaments, much more so than I do, and much more disappointed when I exit. She can't for the life of her understand why I've only won one big tournament yet: she seems to take the view that anything less than a win every few weeks suggests I'm not trying hard enough.

I think I only shared a table with you once and the only thing that really struck me was how silent and focussed you stayed while the likes of YULETIRED and I were rabbitting on apropos of nothing...does this reflect your character in general (i.e. more an observer than a participant)?

Not really, in most other settings I'm as much or more of a participant. I think it's more down to the fact that my original game was chess where intense silence and focus is very much the norm. A very large part of my game is based on opponent-specific reads and it takes all my concentration live to pick those up.

Also what percentage of 'edge' do you think your powers of concentration and observation give you?

Maybe 20%.

Do you not feel that a relaxed and happy table is a more profitable table and what are your thoughts on whether it's worthwhile to help create that atmosphere?

At a cash game, maybe. At a tournament table your goal is to get everyone else's chips as fast as possible rather than create a happy relaxed atmosphere so that people will want to go on playing with you longer and in future. My ideal live tourney table is me, someone like Dave Masters or Mark Dalimore who are skilled at tilting people, and 7 others I don't know who are all monkey tilted by the antics of Dave/Mark. That's a profitable table because people make their worst mistakes in tournaments when they're on tilt.

Staying silent and withdrawn also works well with the table image I'm generally going for, particularly in the UK.

YULETIRED wrote: »

why are you ignoring trippie? Is is becuase he is white? or have you figured out his question yet? :-)

lol,no its clearly because iv freckles,sure why else would it be, eh....not too sure what i was saying myself to be honest