RECORD BREAKER

Video can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkgACB7RFi8

UK poker pro Paul Zimbler faced US legend Doyle Bronson in the first contest of his gruelling 78 hour 25 min Heads Up Guinness World Record Attempt. Taking place at the World Series of Poker Europe presented by Betfair, the unique World Record attempt is being staged in aid of the Make a Wish Foundation and Sparks children’s charity and aims to raise over £50,000.

Playing in the Casino at the Empire leister Square Paul took on a staggering 190 players continuously over the 78 hrs and went head to head with members of the public and a range of celebrities and high profile poker pros including Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, Phil Hellmuth, Huck Seed, Neil Channing, Jesse May, Devilfish, Robert Williamson III, The Hendon Mob, Annette Obrestad, Roberto Romanello, Michael Greco and November 9 Finalist James Akenhead.

Paul Zimbler commented: “While my main motivation was to raise as much money for charity as possible, it will be great to take on some of the biggest names in world poker on the way to establishing a new Guinness World Record.”


Poker players and supporters wishing to get involved in the action or show their support should visit http://www.justgiving.com/Paul-Zimbler0 to make a donation and help Paul Zimbler reach his target of £50,000.

LATE NIGHT POKER

What a week it has been for me.....

Where would I start? Not really sure but I managed to get a seat in Late Night Poker as someone dropped out. I made a few calls and managed to raise the $10,000 I needed to enter this event.

I arrived the night before as I didnt want to drive to Cardiff in traffic so I headed off about 2230 from my home. I arrived in good time and upon entering the hotel I saw my friend Roberto Romanello who was just checking out.

I got a good nights sleep and woke up and headed to the gym to prepare for my heat in a few hours.

My heat was full of big names apart from me hahaha Mike "The Mouth" , Huck seed, Roy "the boy" Brindley, Nikhil Persaud, Gavin Smith and an online qualifier who was well known for his high stakes tourney achievemnts.

I was focused and ready for action. I played my heart out and kept having to regian my composure as 1 player kept playing so badly yet getting so lucky against me on at least 3 occassions.

This is poker and I knew that I was getting my money in good and that was all I could do. It just sucks though when you are playing a pot in level 3 to have over half the chips in play and he manages to catch a 1 outer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I did re-group well on each occassion and was lucky that I still had chips to play with. I never give up as you would have seen from previous TV events and I still beliieved that I was going to win.

I took out the Mouth after Nikhil raised with AT then Mike moved all in with TT and I looked down at KK. I had visualised this happening but still had to sweat on a 987 board.

The game was fun and I played well. I ended up heads up with the man in form and former World Champion and more recently world heads up champion Mr Huck Seed. What an honour it was and what a lovely guy he was too. I was low in chips and took a gamble with J7 v his A9 we both had diamonds and I was in need of some luck. I got it as I floped a straight 89T with 2 diamonds. This was not enough as it was clear destiny had other plans for me.

I had a great day but was not happy to have to go to the semi finals and do it all again in order to get to the final. Which id where I belonged after playing today.

This was of couse until I saw who I was going to be playing with.

Andrew Feldman, Sam Tricket, Ben Kang, Adam carey, Soren Nielsen and the beautiful sexy Lacey Jones.

What can I tell you. I arrived in the green room 1 hr before and saw this woman playing her heat. She was in a red dress and I could not believe my eyes.

She managed to get heads up and she also lost her heat so this meant I would be playing with her in a bit in the Semi Finals.

As she came out I was talking with Roland and she came straight up to him to chat about her performance. I introduced myself as I do and I think it may have been love at first sight:) argh....

We had some fun and banter while playing our semi final as well as a lot of flirting on her part and after that we swaped BBM pin and tel number. We could not stay off the phone for nearly 2 days until she went home to America but that did not stop us. I jumped on a plane (as one does) and went to go see her as I couldnt wait forever to find out if this was going to be something great.

I arrived in Phily and we had the most amazing weekend. We headed down to Atlantic City where she had to do some work for the Borgata Poker Open.

I am a lucky guy I know and am head over heels........

I guess this was the reason for me not winning my heat and cupid and fate had their own agenda.

Everything happens for a reason and I am glad I got to play the event and get to the semis and also meet Lacey. she didnt even know about LNP and it was a complete coincidence as another player dropped out and Roland suggested she played as she was in the county. She was called and had the day free so she came to play. How weird is that????

So going back to the game well I am not allowed to say to much until it is aired so I wont but my heat is on Tuesday 29th Sept 2009 on Chanel 4 at 0030.

You can watch Lacey tonight 15th Sept same time and channel.

Next up is my World Record Attempt which starts Monday 21st Sept at 13:00 at the Empire Casino in London during the WSOPE. I will be playing Heads Up Poker against all commers for 75 hrs + while raising money for Charity.

Please join me and sponsor me or come and play me www.justgiving.com/paul-zimbler0

POKER MILLION VIIII

The Poker Million is known as the biggest and toughest poker tournament on TV. This is the 8th year it has been running and for many years now it has been an invite only event, unless you manage to win one of the few seats given away online.


To get an invitation for this is not the easiest task but harder than that is the entry fee which is $20,000.
I went to the live final last year and from that night till about 1 week ago I made it my job to get an invite to this event. I know I am good enough I know the format and I know I can win. Only thing I didn’t know was how I was going to pay for it......Let’s be honest $20,000, not the easiest thing to find especially for a single table tourney.

So about 2 weeks ago I got the call from Matchroom, I had a seat and my heat was on the 16th July. Great I said I’m in. Not a care in the world about how I was going to buy in I just knew that I had done the hard part which was getting in, surely finding 20K would be easy :)
I called my sponsors BETFRED to let them know as I decided not to go to Las Vegas this year and use the money for the Poker Million if I got the call. This is where the roller coaster ride started for me.

The call came and with 10 days to get the entry fee the pressure was on.
Betfred were aware that I wanted to play this event and that I had chosen this over the WSOP also so that their money spent on me gets the best marketing for them.
They decided that they were not going to put me into this event so now I was stuck and needed to find $20k.
I had a plan.................
Every time after I play on TV I get a lot of friend requests on facebook and people asking me if they can buy a small share in me so I decided to sell shares in me for this event to the public.
I know this is done a lot and normally on forums but this opens up so many negative things I wanted to keep it between people I knew. I was not desperate nor did I need to sell myself to the average Joe blogs but I did need to raise a lot of money.
$20,000 divided by $100 made 200 shares, each share was worth 0.4% of my winnings, (This means that I would play for a 20% free roll) this made it look easy................

I created a group on FB and sent it to all the people I knew. 1 thing I hate doing is asking people for money. Though I believed in my game and knew I could win I still find it hard to do. $100 is not a lot to ask for but I needed 200 investors.
The group was filling up daily with people investing bits every day. I spoke to a few friends who also bought bigger shares and before I knew it I had raised $10,000. This was amazing and I was sure I would be able to get $10,000 from my sponsors or a company to wear a logo.
How wrong I was. With all the big investors still out in Vegas it didn’t look like I would raise the money in time.
I would have 2 choices.
Pay the balance myself or let me seat go and watch the opportunity of a lifetime go by. With doing the second I would also be in a situation that I may not get anymore invites to this event and possibly other TV events too. The choice was made. I would buy in the rest myself though not happy about it I knew this was the only way.

As I was coming to terms with the fact that my sponsors had let me down in a huge way and that I was having to invest $10,000 to a shootout that at this point in my life I did not have to spare my phone rang. It was Roland de Wolfe. I had tried to call him on his UK number but knowing he was in Vegas I just thought he would call me when he got back. He was in fact interested to buy a share of me as he knows a good thing when he sees it LOL. He became my biggest single share holder and after that call was finished 2 more friends I could not get hold of also called and bought big shares. It was like I was being tested, over and over again.
Things were looking up the money was coming and destiny was all I kept thinking about.
Surely now my sponsors would give me 25% of the buy in to get guaranteed TV exposure and the chance to back the winner of the POKER MILLION VIII.
Again I was wrong and I couldn’t be bothered to argue. There was a lot of red tape bulls**t and company crap that needed to be signed off for this to happen and everyone was away that needed to sign it off so I was now in limbo as what I should do.
Why not try to get a company to pay me to wear their logo. It was clear that my sponsors were not interested and since I was not on a new contract with them I was free to work with anyone.
I did send an email to my contact and let them know that one of their competitors had offered me money to wear their logo and they replied to me giving me the ok.
Dilemma.....Should I just wear my usual logo since I am going to be signing a big contract with them in a few weeks??? Why should I, I thought to myself. I have done all I can and even gone as low as I can to make this good for both parties. I even explained that if I wear another logo and when I win the event in December it will look really stupid if we do a press release in 1 or 2 months that I am now your sponsored player and win the POKER MILLION wearing a different logo; still they said nothing we can do. LMAO.

The day came to go and play and I agreed to wear a Paddy Power Irish Open logo. They did send me a top but to be fair bright green isn’t my colourJ I was happy to wear the sticky logo.
My heat changes a little since my good friend Roberto Romanello played in the morning heat he was replaced by none other than the Greek fish himself.
I played with Greekfish in my 888 world Open heat and I remember the banter we had. It was fun and great TV but he repeatedly said he should have one and I was happy for him to have another go.
Seat 1 Andy Greek Fish
Seat 2 Adam Carey (online Qualifier)
Seat 3 Lee Watkinson
Seat 4 Marco Traniello
Seat 5 Paul Zimbler
Seat 6 Liam Flood

What a great line up I was ready, focused and so up for wining.

We were walking into the studio to start when Beiju from Mtchroom turned to me and said, Paul we put you and Andy together again so let’s see some great banter!
I turned to him with a straight face and said, Beiju: This is the Poker Million with a 20K buy in, I’m not here to make banter or for TV, I’m here to Win. I think I left him speechless which is not easy to do.

I sat at the table did some meditation and created a zone that I was in control of. I was ready to play and play my heart out. I wanted to win more than anything and I wanted to show a different Paul Zimbler to the one in the past few TV shows I have done. This was not going to be easy but I knew it could be done.
To see how the heat was played and hand for hand updates go to http://www.matchroompoker.com/ and click on the forum or go straight to heat 4 by clicking
http://www.matchroompokerforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=797

I managed to control this heat and myself for near enough the whole thing. I went low once and lost a vital race with AJ v Liam’s 88 3 handed which put Liam right back in it. I did get lucky in 1 hand which I was surprised that I had to show after Liam snap called my all in with AT. I of course had 2 5 suited and decided not to play the stop and go but to just get it all in as I was sure he was folding. It was the only time in the whole tournament I was making any real move and the only time I was in danger and could have gone out. I would have been really pissed if I went out there but Destiny was on my side and I got to the heads up exactly level.
Adam had been getting great cards all day and knocked out every player at the table. I was playing great and did tell him that I wished him every success in the turbo heat as I would love to have seen him in the semi finals with me. I gave him a lot of respect and decided to play small pot poker with him heads up since this would/should give me an edge. I was folding a lot to his bets until I decided that he should not be running over me but surely it should have been visa versa. I made a small re-raise once and he folded. That’s the Paul Zimbler we all miss I said out loud but didn’t show my cards.
I think looking back I played 1 hand badly when we were 3 handed. Adam raised I called KcQc flop was K high with 2 clubs. Since I didn’t want to give him a chance here as Liam was still in I decided to fast play and if he had a hand he called if not he wouldn’t. I think if I took a bit more time there to think I could have won a few chips from him there and gone into the heads up with a big chip lead but maybe then the heads up would have been played differently.
I slow played a lot and finally I got him to make a big mistake. I called his raise pre flop with KQ and the flop was K high I checked and he moved all in I called and he had 22. The turn and river didn’t help him and I was through to the semi finals as promised of the POKER MILLION VIII.

A big thank you goes to all the people who backed me. You are now all free rolling as I offered them 100% of the investment back on the first $20,000 I won.
The semi Final is on the 9th October and the line up is just beautiful. Annette Obrestad, Luke Schwartz, Tony Bloom, Nam Le, Juha Helppi, on line qualifier and turbo heat winner Peter Vasiliou and me. This will be a serious semi final and one I am sure I will come out of with a lot of chips. The final is then Live on the 6th December.

Day 3 Irish Open 2009

A race to the final table.

With 187,500 in Chips and a new day ahead I somehow managed to put the hand from last night behind me and move on fresh with a clear head.
1 thing was for sure I wanted to win this and knew I was able to I just needed a little bit of luck with my 50/50s.

My table draw was good in regards to players and chip stacks but I managed to get involved a few to many times min races or 60/40 shots normally being the 40% end of it to try to take out the smaller stacks.
I played a pocket pair of sixes bad too where I had to call and all in for quite a few chips and he had QQ.
I decided to go outside for a min as I needed a break what was happening to me and my chips?????
With the blinds 4000 8000 with a 500 anti the action got to me in the small blind. I made a speech to the BB like we should play a big pot now and I called with QJ AQJ was the flop as I checked it to him, it was checked back and the turn was a J. again it is checked round and the river is a 4. I bet out 8K looking week and he thinks for 2 minutes which Will does every time the action was on him and folded.
I find AA and raise to 40K which looks crazy and probably is but if you want to crack my AA then you have to pay. Of course no one has a hand this time and it is folded round to me.
Now comes and interesting hand. I have ordered some food and it arrives as I raise to 28K with AcJc, the German guy in seat 9 who is wearing a paddy power shirt so is in the last few for the sole survivor which is worth 100K to them pushes all in. Everyone folds to me and I think for a while.
I have seen him do this with A8, JT, 99 and 3 other times but didn’t get to see his cards. What hand can I put him on here and do I want to gamble?
Ok, a weak ace would be a nice thought but probably not! AA KK didn’t think so. QQ, JJ TT could be possible. The truth was he knew I was capable of passing a big hand and he had seen me raise and pass a few times. Did I think I was 40% or better in the hand? YES so I called since I wanted to win the comp and this was set to be a pot worth over 225,000. It was 81,500 more into a pot of just over 140K. It did leave me with 17K if I didn’t win the hand but I don’t worry about that till I’m in that situation.
OK I said I call. Knowing deep down that this is not the best call of all but a chance to get back into the tournament and have a good run at making the final then going for the win.
I turned over my AJ and he looked sad and make a comment like Oh No! Now I thought I had him crushed as why else make a reaction like that. He turned his cards over and I saw the Q of hearts first then the Q spades????? WTF??? Never mind doesn’t bother me really I had already made the call so in truth no difference just bad etiquette.
The flop was ok K T 4 and with no aces passed there were still 3 in the deck for me to hit and now with 2 Queens’. 5 outs was about 20%. I thought it was my turn to hit as I was running pretty bad on day 3 and if the maths were right I was due this one. The turn was another T which was not so good and the river bought me one of my outs from the flop but unfortunately not good enough. It was a Q. SO SICK…………
Ok compose! So a hand later there were 2 players all in B4 me and the blinds with a chance to quadruple up I looked down to see 7d8d and knew this was the hand to take on that challenge.
It was a funny hand as the guy in the 9 seat the same German went to make a raise and was not finished before the dealer moved on. He was counting his chips so close to the line the bet stood. Ok I knew for some reason he had AA as he was about to make a scene and didn’t was happy for the action to go on. So when they were on their backs it was his AA v AQ v my 78. Come on I thought this would get me right back in it and now there were only 39 left. The flop was no help to anyone but as number of turn cards could give me chances. I paired up on the turn and got no love on the river and I was gone in 39th place.
It is not a bad result but I was bitterly disappointed. I always expect to win when I play and especially when I have chips. I had a lot to think about but first I wanted to get the hell out of there and let the emotions go. I meet my girlfriend went for a walk and let it all out. I enjoy to shout/scream and of course there were a few tears. I went back in to collect my 6700 Euro OK I was bought into the event THANK YOU BETFRED and I worked 3 days for 6700 euro this is the positive way to look at it but not the easy way. I knew I also could have waited 5 min to climb up the money ladder to 9700 Euro but quadrupling up was far more important to me as I was in it to win it.

I did something this trip I was proud of. I did not go crazy on tilt in the cash games. I didn’t rush to play the next event I just relaxed and had some fun with the friends I had over their.
This year Ireland was a great experience I learned a lot and had another good run at the title.
I WILL BE BACK NEXT YEAR AND I WILL WIN THE IRISH OPEN SOON J

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.

IRISH OPEN 2009 Day 1

IRISH OPEN 2009


So it’s a Thursday morning at 0400 and my alarm goes off. Those that know me know that me and mornings do not go hand in hand and trying to wake up b4 midday is not an easy task for me.

I manage to push snooze 4 times before I turned the alarm off and thankfully I ordered a wake up call and got it just in time.
I decided to pack the night before and was not 100% ready but had 10 mins to finish packing and remember to add the girlfriends hairdryer and other stuff before heading off to Luton for my 0615 flight to Dublin.

I go to collect my friend from his house and we head off.
We make it just in time well 5 min before check in closes but there is a small problem Ryan air flight 5 quid. I paid for a bag 18 quid problem was only allowed 15KG and I thought we were allowed 20KG. My bag weighed 22KG and they wanted 15 quid a kilo? WTF was cheaper to buy another case in the shop and pay for an extra bag. 1 problem only had 4 minutes left to do this. I took out 5KG and thought f**k it I am about to win 600K what is 75 quid. I paid the excess and we moved on.
From there we went to security where the queue was a joke you can now pay 3 quid to jump the queue which of course we did. The flight was on time and I managed to sleep the whole way.

DUBLIN

We arrive and jump into the cab which was 80 euro after paying 8 euro for a packet of cigs. SICK
City West Hotel. This is where the tourney was tacking place same as last year and it is a very nice hotel. The event is run so well and I think that the Irish open is the best event in Europe. The cash games are unreal and the partying goes on all through the night, when in Rome………..

So as normal like a bull in the china shop I get into a cash game. I mange to get involved for 1600 after 10 min loosing AA QQ AK and 77 and KK wining but small as an Ace was on the flop. I manage to get most of it back with K6 dia flopping the nuts…..
From there I decided to play the super sat for fun it was a 200 rebuy event and great value. I bought in on level 3 so it didn’t cost me a fortune as only 2000 chips. I added on for 4000 chips and managed to play QQ so badly I went out early on.
OFF TO THE BAR IT WAS
I meet Ashley Hames from sin cites who was here to play poker also, we got on well and managed to drink and drink and drink well and drink some more.
We were a few of us Grecs, Paul Goulray and mrs as well as a few others.
I headed of to bed at 0200 as I wanted to be in a good mood for the Main event the next morning.

1100 My alarm goes off, my head was hurting and I managed to get myself down to the gym as I promised myself I would do.
I worked out for 1 hr sweating the booze out and sat in the steam room for a while.
I came back and started my book on shares I was swapping as well as buying! Wow I felt like Neil Channing with my note book, I hope I can do as he did last year as this was my dream from 2 years ago after I lost a sick pot on the river 11 handed.
After all was done as I had collected 20% from a friend in the super sat for 700 euro I was ready to play. All I asked for was a good table draw and I got exactly what I asked for.
A table from heaven.
I did go down to 8K early on but I was happy with my table image and was having good banter with my table mates.
I then started hitting hands after playing small pot poker and betting my hands big and getting paid.
I am keeping a journal of every hand I am playing as well as the types of hands I am dealt. I don’t want to say too much as I will write it all up after I win the event. I was up and down from 22K to 15K through the day and managed to double a rock up after flopping top pair and checking to him to fold but decided to gamble.
Then we got a new player at our table WITH OVER 30k HE WAS NOT USING HIS CHIPS AND MAYBE PLAYED 3 HANDS IN 2 HRS. We saw 1 of them which was the nuts and didn’t get to see the other 2. HE decided to raise my BB when the blinds were 300 6000 to 1300. I called with As9s and the flop was AA9, I was sitting with about 25K at this point. I checked as you would and he bet 1300 again, so I dwelled up for a bit and made a reluctant call as if it was a continuation bet I have to call. The turn was a Jack and I checked again he decided at this point to move all in where within a split second I thought would he do this with AJ and if he did I think I would give poker up for a while. Of course I called instantly and he sheepishly turned over his 7c2c and I was sooooooo happy he was drawing dead. This was a 50K+ pot and there was less than 1 hr left in the day. The next hand our table broke and I was sent on my way. I relaxed for the rest of the day with no hands just steeling 2 pots to keep my chips up there.
The day ended with 312 players from the 700 that started and I was happy to have double average.

Off to the bar we went for well I would say a drink but to be honest was more like 10 drinks were I meet and had a chat with x world champ Jamie Gold.

FILL YOUR BOOTS & GET A BET ON ME! J

IRISH OPEN 2009

IRISH OPEN 2009


So it’s a Thursday morning at 0400 and my alarm goes off. Those that know me know that me and mornings do not go hand in hand and trying to wake up b4 midday is not an easy task for me.

I manage to push snooze 4 times before I turned the alarm off and thankfully I ordered a wake up call and got it just in time.
I decided to pack the night before and was not 100% ready but had 10 mins to finish packing and remember to add the girlfriends hairdryer and other stuff before heading off to Luton for my 0615 flight to Dublin.

I go to collect my friend from his house and we head off.
We make it just in time well 5 min before check in closes but there is a small problem Ryan air flight 5 quid. I paid for a bag 18 quid problem was only allowed 15KG and I thought we were allowed 20KG. My bag weighed 22KG and they wanted 15 quid a kilo? WTF was cheaper to buy another case in the shop and pay for an extra bag. 1 problem only had 4 minutes left to do this. I took out 5KG and thought f**k it I am about to win 600K what is 75 quid. I paid the excess and we moved on.
From there we went to security where the queue was a joke you can now pay 3 quid to jump the queue which of course we did. The flight was on time and I managed to sleep the whole way.

DUBLIN

We arrive and jump into the cab which was 80 euro after paying 8 euro for a packet of cigs. SICK
City West Hotel. This is where the tourney was tacking place same as last year and it is a very nice hotel. The event is run so well and I think that the Irish open is the best event in Europe. The cash games are unreal and the partying goes on all through the night, when in Rome………..

So as normal like a bull in the china shop I get into a cash game. I mange to get involved for 1600 after 10 min loosing AA QQ AK and 77 and KK wining but small as an Ace was on the flop. I manage to get most of it back with K6 dia flopping the nuts…..
From there I decided to play the super sat for fun it was a 200 rebuy event and great value. I bought in on level 3 so it didn’t cost me a fortune as only 2000 chips. I added on for 4000 chips and managed to play QQ so badly I went out early on.
OFF TO THE BAR IT WAS
I meet Ashley Hames from sin cites who was here to play poker also, we got on well and managed to drink and drink and drink well and drink some more.
We were a few of us Grecs, Paul Goulray and mrs as well as a few others.
I headed of to bed at 0200 as I wanted to be in a good mood for the Main event the next morning.

1100 My alarm goes off, my head was hurting and I managed to get myself down to the gym as I promised myself I would do.
I worked out for 1 hr sweating the booze out and sat in the steam room for a while.
I came back and started my book on shares I was swapping as well as buying! Wow I felt like Neil Channing with my note book, I hope I can do as he did last year as this was my dream from 2 years ago after I lost a sick pot on the river 11 handed.
After all was done as I had collected 20% from a friend in the super sat for 700 euro I was ready to play. All I asked for was a good table draw and I got exactly what I asked for.
A table from heaven.
I did go down to 8K early on but I was happy with my table image and was having good banter with my table mates.
I then started hitting hands after playing small pot poker and betting my hands big and getting paid.
I am keeping a journal of every hand I am playing as well as the types of hands I am dealt. I don’t want to say too much as I will write it all up after I win the event. I was up and down from 22K to 15K through the day and managed to double a rock up after flopping top pair and checking to him to fold but decided to gamble.
Then we got a new player at our table WITH OVER 30k HE WAS NOT USING HIS CHIPS AND MAYBE PLAYED 3 HANDS IN 2 HRS. We saw 1 of them which was the nuts and didn’t get to see the other 2. HE decided to raise my BB when the blinds were 300 6000 to 1300. I called with As9s and the flop was AA9, I was sitting with about 25K at this point. I checked as you would and he bet 1300 again, so I dwelled up for a bit and made a reluctant call as if it was a continuation bet I have to call. The turn was a Jack and I checked again he decided at this point to move all in where within a split second I thought would he do this with AJ and if he did I think I would give poker up for a while. Of course I called instantly and he sheepishly turned over his 7c2c and I was sooooooo happy he was drawing dead. This was a 50K+ pot and there was less than 1 hr left in the day. The next hand our table broke and I was sent on my way. I relaxed for the rest of the day with no hands just steeling 2 pots to keep my chips up there.
The day ended with 312 players from the 700 that started and I was happy to have double average.

Off to the bar we went for well I would say a drink but to be honest was more like 10 drinks were I meet and had a chat with x world champ Jamie Gold.

FILL YOUR BOOTS & GET A BET ON ME! :)