IRISH OPNE 2009 DAY 2

DAY 2 of the Irish Open Main Event.

I managed somehow to give you an update last night after quite a few drinks in the bar after the days play was over. I am not normally a drinker while I play but I was taught from a young age one expression: “When in Rome, do as Roman’s do”

I left early though to get a good nights sleep in as I knew that day 2 would be long and gruelling and I wanted a clear head and make it through the day without feeling worn out before the end. I am here to win and to do this I need to keep a clear head.

06:30 there is a knock at my door. I was not amused as I am sure you can guess. I think it is my girlfriend who was coming in that morning, I had left here some money and a room key at reception so she would not need to wake me and I realised that it was to early for here so who the F**K was it?
It was my friend who I came with Joel, he decided to celebrate his chip count for ending day 1 by drinking all night with the others and had just found out that he lost his bet which was that I was not in the top 20 in the chip counts. I was in fact number 20 and he was not happy, waking me up at 0630 though is not advisable in normal circumstances and if it was not for the girlfriend coming out in 1 hr I would have gone mental.

I manage to get some more sleep get to the gym sweat out some booze and relax in the steam room before heading down to start play.

My table draw again was great and I could tell from early on that we had quite a tight table.
I played the first 2 levels really badly and lost a lot of chips, I still have not had Kings in 2 days and Queens and Aces 3 times between them.
I called a lot of the short stacks and before I knew it I was down to about 25K. Not feeling the best I decided to take a walk, on my return I watched the table as the guy 3 to my right was raising and raising hand after hand. My small blind comes round and he raised again, the blinds were 500/1000 and he made it 3000, I looked down at 88 out of position and decided after a lot of thought to shove. He stopped and thought for a while checked I didn’t have him covered and finally called. He had KK and he was not slow rolling me! I found out after he was a rock and must have been on a mad rush.
The flop was 995 so all the money would have gone in anyway and the turn was no help. For the 1st time in a long time my stomach went as I thought this was my year and maybe now it wasn’t going to happen, I didn’t want to appear cocky and I tapped the table and stood up. As I was about to walk away I saw the 8 hit the river from the corner of my eye. It was fate! Now I believed that this is my year and the feeling is unreal. I was shaking and from there I grew my chips rapidly. I had people paying me off 40K a time and I quickly got myself up there with the chip leaders.

Kitty (that’s my girls knick name arrived and went out shopping for the day as they do as I do not really want her railing me all day 1 its boring and 2 she is more nervous than me.

Level 7 and 8 of the day we were moved to the feature table where I took 175K with me. I built this up to just over 300K and finished the day with 187,300 in10th place from the 64 remaining. The average chips is now just over the 100K mark.

I remember seeing in the rules I was allowed to wear 1 logo on shirt and 1 on the sleeve. I stuck another one on the sleeve for luck as the Betfred logo is bright and would stand out. This was live on the net and will be shown in Ireland and the UK over a 12 week period.
I played pretty tight on the TV I re-raised the scandie 1st hand with QQ and was solid most the time apart from near the bubble. I raised 1 pot with K8 and was called on the button the big blind pushed for 31K more which I thought I had to call as the was like 50K in the middle at that point. Somehow the button managed to fold JJ face up and I was glad he did. The big blind had the hand I was hoping for AT and and 8 high flop sealed the deal for me. I was now on my way and going past the 300K mark so was the chip leader.

I was feeling tired but had played well most the day I think I made 2 mistakes through the day, I am lucky that I was able to bounce back and see the positive side of it all and re group. I was happy the day ended when it did and we headed to the bar for a few drinks before heading back to the room to do my updates and get a good nights sleep in.
I am telling you all as I told my friends, 13 is my lucky number. 13 years I have waited and grinded. A bet on me to make the final table and to win is a good one if you can get it on. Don’t say I didn’t tell you……..

Play starts at 1400 again on Sunday and I will be updating once we get to the final table.