| Game Type: | Limit |
| Buy-in: | €3000 +€200 |
| Prize Pool: | €1,017,000 |
| Entries: | 339 |
The blonde team arrived in Dublin a whole 18 hours before the commencement of the Paddy Power Irish Open. I think this is a first; back when it was me and tikay doing the rounds, a plane arriving more than an hour before the start of play was looked on as gaining a holiday on top of the update service… so we hardly knew what to do with ourselves. But after a quick appraisal of the Good Friday going-out possibilities, it was decided that finding a drink in the hotel bar (quite possibly the only place in town providing such a thing) was the best plan of action.
We ran into enthusiastic Germans Jan Heitmann and George ‘The Tank’ Danzer in the café, and seeing as hanging out was our only real option, hung out. It turns out that Jan is some kind of card whiz Magic Circle member, and we spent at least an hour watching him perform simply amazing tricks which left Dana convinced he’d made some kind of pact with the Devil. It was great fun, though, and we were pleased to see George make the money in the end. But that’s a long way off.
By 4pm the next day the down side of the drinking all night plan was apparent. Nevertheless, we installed ourselves in the fully-Wifi’d press corner and went on the lookout for famous faces, and despite having our backs to the room, they came to us, making our job more sociable, not to mention easier. Players like the amiable Stephen McLean, Joe Beevers, Simon Zach, Mick Jones, Peter Roche and James Akenhead drifted by, and we couldn’t avoid Mike Lacey from Antesup since he’s usually sat right next to us blogging away. He’d left semi-disgruntled Tom Murphy to cover the Irish updates (‘semi’ because of his good performance in the previous day’s €400 event) and geared up to play, for once. And here on their home turf there were plenty of people to watch, from Jim Reid and Len Collin, to the intense Andy Black and the chatty Padraig Parkinson.
Of course there are more updaters-turned-players to be mentioned, firstly Maria ‘Chili Pepper’ Demetriou whose mixture of anticipation and excitement was clear despite her cool first appearance, and secondly tikay. He sells himself short as an updater, but secretly I know that he just loves to play – despite the occasional depressing poker moment, as occurred in this event. But at the start both blonde figureheads set off well, with Chili slowly accumulating playing both Kings and, er, 74 to good effect. Tikay was standing up at one point as his QQ faced KK and almost certain doom, but he spiked his lucky Queen and was later to be found outside smoking and telling people that he “trapped him a treat,” ‘him’ being Michael Lindback, who kept his head excellently and pulled back after the dinner break.
Last year’s winner was none other than Burnley John Falconer, in case there’s anybody out there who didn’t know that, and his face adorned the multitude of glossy green brochures lying about, as well as the promotional mousemats included in the Paddy Power goody bags! Imagine that, a mousemat with your face on it… but all of that didn’t stop his being one of the first exits, due in the most part to a big early clash with Ash Hussain, whose pocket Sixes flopped a set against John’s KK. Then another pair of Kings was outdrawn on the river by Queens and it was curtains for the title-holder.
There was a great interactivity on the forum, with many players local and foreign being tracked in this big event. When we needed ID, friends came up with all sorts of stuff, like, “You'll know Matt Dale. Look for the player raising every single pot with rags. Bristol’s very own David Cameron lookalike.” We had less trouble with Matt Tyler, who “finally let someone else win something,” and youngsters Dan Carter (pictured left) and Marky147, as well as blonde favourites Simon Nowab, Rob Yong and Nick Whiten (both of whom put in good performances going deep into Day Two). Trevor Reardon was initially nowhere to be found, but his late start didn’t seem to put him off, and we reckon he might have started playing after the dangerous Julian Thew had already been eliminated. Incidentally, we had the pleasure of meeting his brother over there, who was more reminiscent of Julian than actually similar, but as expected was a thoroughly nice chap.
Despite the allure of the stupendously pricey Bellagio WPT event occurring simultaneously, Jesse May was in attendance (doing what he does so well on the televised final table) and so was Mike Caro, briefly. The charming Dave O’Callaghan told me that somehow in an unraised pot, and a flop of Q 7 7 he’d pushed all-in for 7,000 into a pot of 400 on the button with A2 off, and found the big blind sitting on pocket Queens.
Elsewhere the action was more sedate, but that didn’t stop Graham Clarkson, Roy ‘The Boy’ Brindley and Mickey Wernick from building pleasant stacks fairly early. Roy’s was probably helped by the elimination of Julian, for which he was responsible, but young Dutchman Abel Meijberg soon overtook them all, remaining chip leader for much of the day. He was also the cause of some excitement of the ‘shock-horror’ kind when he found himself all-in against Finton Mulville (not exactly short-stacked) with just a gutshot – and hit. Possibly even more extreme was Norwegian star Sverre Sundbo’s exit – with 55,000 chips there was only one player on his table who covered him, Norman Walsh – a player ready to call with 66 on a rainbow 2 3 4 flop when Sverre made a huge all-in bet with a set of deuces. The 6 fell, and a disheartened Sverre retired to his room with my Ethernet cable.
As Day One wore on, there was the steady elimination we have grown to expect, despite the 10,000 starting stack and hour clock. Michael Greco, for example, called all-in with JJ after a raise and an all-in in front of him, and I overheard him having second thoughts but it was too late – the KK against him finished him off. Stuart Fox ended the day well, having eliminated Andy Black’s pocket Fives with his KQ, and despite a shaky start, Bad Girl and Rumit appeared to be recovering.
Late in the day, Chili was looking like she might be drifting off, and was getting blinded away, but a quick cup of coffee and a chat seemed to restore her spirits and she worked her stack back up to a more-than-respectable 36,500 by the end of play. Tikay, on the other hand, ran foul of the infamous Stephen Pearce, deciding that pushing with Sixes was a good idea after Stephen had limped in under the gun. Of course, he had the AA, and he was out. It’s never nice to feel that you’re sitting on the rail because you’ve made an avoidable error, but never one to dwell on misfortune, he recovered quickly and made it to our room to have a drink with a happy Maria.
Speaking of the rail, Snoopy and I had the fortune of Kev and Danafish’s (pictured left) combined presence, which was more than enough help when we needed endless photos resized (thanks Dana) or pictures taken of the lovely dealers (thanks Kev). It’s great to have a little blonde team at these events, quite apart from all the players. And there were still so many to follow on Day Two – up near the top of the chip pile were Tony Cascarino, Stuart Fox, Paul Roper, Joe Grech, Kevin O’Leary, Paul Daly and Tony Chessa, with other Norsemen Torstein Iversen and Edgar Skjervold hovering around the middle with Chili, Ian Woodley and Dave ‘Doubleup’ McGeachie.
The action was so fast at the beginning of Day Two that Snoopy had trouble coping. I, on the other hand, was everywhere at once, my finger on the pulse. Actually, the only detail I managed to gather in the first half hour was the harsh beat Rumit suffered to ruin his tournament chances. He had the AA in the small blind, and re-raised Vincent Melinn preflop, who called with KQ off. Vincent moved in on the K J 8 flop, and Rumit was happy to call, and see the Ace on the turn, but not the 10 on the river! In a most sportsmanlike way, Rumit was rewarded by the eventual winner of the comp with a little share in a bet he’d placed on himself to win. So we had a very excited Rumit watching TV with us late the next day…
Back to Day Two and Chili was moved to Mickey Wernick’s left. After building chips nicely, a major blow to her stack came with a blind vs. blind bluff against Mickey, made one card too late, which was bravely called by her opponent and made her eventual losing race against Tim Gillig a gamble she had to make. Meanwhile players were breaking the 100k barrier all over the place – Eoin Tobin (pictured right), Roy Brindley, Jonathan Wong, Mel Judah and Ian Woodley were all storming ahead, while despite finishing the day before nearly as chip leader, Stephen Pearce was eliminated around the 50th mark, by Rob Yong, who was playing confidently and in good spirits, letting Stephen bluff into him repeatedly with K9 off while he held the AA and the nut flush draw.
With 36 being paid, we thought it would slow down a lot more than it actually did at this stage, and with bubble Connor Cooney just missing out on €2,000, there was still a long way to go until play stopped for the final six to get their beauty sleep before playing live on TV the next day. And here’s what was being paid:
1 €350,000
2 €180,000
3 €100,000
4 €70,000
5 €60,000
6 €50,000
7 €40,000
8 €30,000
9 €26,000
10-18 €10,000
19-27 €6,000
28-36 €2,000
It might be the time to mention the special extra something thrown in by Paddy Power for their numerous online qualifiers to this event – a Last Longer between them for a WSOP prize package worth $12,000. It got down to just two, Pat O'Callaghan and Alan O'Gorman about this time, and it ended up falling to Pat in the end. There was a lot of good feeling about this Bonus Game as well as the added money in the tournament, it has to be said. It’s a rare event when the good comments outweigh the whinging over in Update Corner…
Up to the dinner break on Day Two was all Rob Yong’s. The blondeites went wild as he became chip leader and paused on a whopping 250k. At 27 players they redrew, for some reason, and players dropped from all tables fairly rapidly. Eliminated with €6,000 to show for it were Paul Wilkinson, Namir Mohamed, Chris Flint and Barry Connolly, the latter enhancing Brendan Ruane’s stack to the point where his final table appearance was no surprise. Perhaps more surprising was the sudden loss of Rob Yong, due mostly to a strange hand against Paul Roper. On an all-club Jack-high flop, Rob bet 40k and found a huge all-in re-raise from Paul. He considered that he might be up against the bare Ace of clubs, and called with top pair, King kicker. He was half-right: Paul had the 9c to go with it and despite a third Jack appearing on the turn, Rob took a hit from which he couldn’t recover. He placed 17th, just pipping Tony Chessa, and right before Mel Judah.
Following that, there was bad luck for Eoin Tobin, whose AK ran into Paul Daly’s KK, while Peter Haslim went on a knockout spree, taking down Roy Brindley and Stuart Fox in one hand. Another last-two-tables for Stuart, who will be getting to that final six in style any day now. Meanwhile Per Hildebrand, who’d been playing strongly all day, gave Ian Woodley’s QQ a pile of chips with AA after an outdraw which gave Ian the momentum to storm into the final, where they described him as a “dangerous English pro.” In a yellow checked shirt.
Ironside was rooting for Dave McGeachie, and was sad when he finished in 10th place, but he did blonde more than proud, beating most of the 339-strong field and finishing above such scary players as Edgar Skjervold and (narrowly) Per Hildebrand. Paul Roper finished 9th, Peter Haslim 8th, and the Final Bubbler was Sylvester Geoghan. That left the final looking like this:
1 Vincent Melinn
2 Conor Smyth
3 Jon Wong
4 Ian Woodley
5 Paul Daly
6 Brendan Ruane
After a full ten minutes on the evening of the final day, Snoopy decided we were to stay in the comfort of the Jury’s hotel and ‘live update’ from the sofa in front of one of the large flatscreen TVs set up all around for the purposes of enjoying the final from the bar. Surrounded by people who had interests in the players or were just curious about the spectacle of live-broadcast poker, we settled in to watch and learn. What I learned is that properly live poker makes great television. There are none of those weird edits where players’ stacks jump up and down with no explanation, and there’s a much better feel for their longer-term play when you have to watch them steal blinds with filth and avoid confrontation occasionally as well as rush at it headlong. It’s the Future.
Anyway, enough pompous generalising: the final was shown in little chunks with breaks for ads (I nearly cracked eventually and bought an Elvis box set) and snatches of commentary from various guests, as well as Roy The Boy and Jesse May. Tournament Director Liam Flood introduced the game, and they were off, playing in the cavernous Royal Dublin Society on a specially made giant stage. Paul Daly quickly doubled through off Ian Woodley, but just as quickly finished 6th after Branden Ruane called his A2 all-in with a flop-hitting QJ. The chips were then:
Melinn -- 902k
Ruane -- 788k
Woodley -- 770k
Smyth -- 522k
Wong -- 423k
After that, the players who’d pointed out that Vincent Melinn wasn’t the type to sit around folding were proven right – between him and Woodley (with the occasional audacious steal from Jon Wong) they were creating a lot of the action. But the next big elimination-hand was that of Conor Smyth, who’d not found a whole lot to play and made a move under the gun with 53. Brendan Ruane found Big Slick, however, and hitting the Ace on the turn sealed Conor’s 5th place finish.
Then Jon Wong, who’d impressed quite a number of players over the three days, seemed to notice he was a bit short, and made the right moves at the right times, picking up two uncontested pots in a row before getting all-in light years in front of Vincent Melinn’s A9 with his A10. But light years weren’t enough – the 9 fell on the river ending Jon’s bid for the top spot. But I’m sure you’ll be seeing more of him.
Brendan Ruane (pictured right) then took the brakes off, pushing Vincent Melinn off a flop he’d totally failed to hit with AK (Vincent actually ahead with his 82) and generally playing completely differently from how he had been earlier. Spectators (and the TV commentators) just couldn’t make their minds up whether he was playing well; he was certainly unpredictable! And so was his eventual third place exit: he raised preflop with KQ of hearts, and Vincent decided to take a peek with pocket Fours, encouraging Ian Woodley to have look with J8. The all-black 2 4 9 flop couldn’t have been better for Vincent, who raised Branden’s flop bet all-in (interestingly deciding against the Trap). I bet he couldn’t believe his eyes when he got called!
We don’t have a clue whether any business was done on the final table, but either way Branden was still smiling when interviewed after he’d knocked himself out in third place. The crowd around the TV was going nuts at this point, but the energy began to wane as the heads up between Woodley and Melinn looked to be a long one. The stacks leaned in favour of one, then the other, until a 77 (Melinn) vs. AJ (Woodley) eventually decided Vincent as the champion. I would be interested to hear what it was like playing totally live on TV with a large, loud, live audience in the background, but unfortunately we were down the road from the players and had to watch the giant cheque and specially-crafted trophy being handed over from afar.
It was almost 4am by the time the tournament was fully wrapped up, but we heard that the programme didn’t run over too badly – in fact the whole thing was well-organised, and Brendan from Paddy Power deserves the updaters’ thanks for providing such great facilities for us. Snoopy, Dana and I look forward for an excuse to go back to Dublin when stuff is open to have a wander around, and a rematch of Chinese Poker with Adam and Tom from Antesup…but that’s another story.