Tag Archives: Irish Open

Flushed Out

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Second shot at the Irish Open quarter final tournament tonight. 22 hands in and I pick up AhQd in the big blind (at 15/30). I’ve got a couple thousand chips, there are only eight people left in the tournament. Three players limp in, the small blind folds, and I raise to 165. All three limpers call the raise.

The flop shows qh3hJh, pairing my queen and giving me a nut flush draw. I bet 300 into the pot of 675. The first limper folds, the second calls, and the third goes all-in for 1,685. I call and the third player pushes his stack forward to make the total 1,840. I’ve only got 180 chips left, with just 25 behind if I make the call, but I’ve got the nut flush draw, right?

Of course, that draw would be a lot easier to make if my opponents’ hands hadn’t turned up as Th8h and 6h7h. With more than half the hearts on the table already, the chances of one showing up on the turn or river were somewhat diminished.

Maybe next time.

The Lure of the Irish

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Darrel in Dublin

It’s been almost exactly a decade since the first (and last) time I was in Ireland. Barbara and I were there for the wedding of some friends in Waterford and we spent a couple of days in Dublin before extending our excursions to Scotland and the Netherlands.

Ireland was the spark for me playing online. Before I ran across Tomer Berda and got serious about playing poker, I’d spotted ads for Cake Poker’s 2010 Irish Open satellites and tried my hand at a few, thinking it would be kind of cool to play poker in Dublin. I guess a year’s gone by because they’re running again. I haven’t been playing on Cake much (please get a Mac client) but I do have to say they’ve got the best Web site graphics of any of the poker sites. Last year I got down to heads-up in two of the five matches I played, coming up in second place (with no prize) each time. Hopefully I’ve improved since then.

My first attempt at one of the Quarter Final matches did not go well, however. A bet to force out players preflop with my AsQs (on hand 13!) ended up with two pair on the board by the turn, which made a full house for one of the other two players who stayed behind.