Hello Guys and Girls,
Today I’m just going to give a poker update and mention a few things that have been making the headlines in the last few weeks.
EPT Grand Final
I am home now a few weeks after the EPT grand final in Monte Carlo. I had a pretty good trip overall, managed to get 3rd in the 5k PLO for 33k and also cashed 26th in a 2k side event for 6k. I booked a small win in the cash games and am overall pretty happy with how I played. I would say Monte Carlo is now probably one of if not the best EPT stop of the year.
It does attract the very best players in the world, but it also attracts a lot of rich recreational players with deep pockets, and I think the “assumed” high expenses put off a lot of the tough grinders. I would definitely recommend it, the tournaments and cash games are super juicy! Also the staff do a great job, the rooms are spacious and well laided out, pretty much perfect conditions for poker.
There was a guy on my first 5k PLO table who thought he could only bet pot and could use anywhere from 1 to 4 cards! That made for some interesting pots before I explained the rules!
Irish Open Decline
I know am bit late on this topic, but I thought I would give my 2 cents. Numbers were down this year and I think the general feeling was that the atmosphere and the “magic” of the Irish Open wasn’t there. For me the reason is pretty simple — the “Irish” have stopped attending.
Full Tilt are hosting the IPO over the coming months with 250 buy-in and are estimating a field of 2,000 runners for the main event in Dublin — the majority of who will be Irish. If I was the marketing people for next year’s Irish Open my goal for next year would be to figure out how to get 500 of the 2,000 people that are willing to put up 250 Euro to attend a 2k Irish Open (2k would be my price point down from this years 3,500). It is clear that people still love the game here due to the high volume of lower buy-in events.
Forget about the pros and celebrities. If you can get 500 keen Irish/UK poker players to attended I assure you the “pros” will come running. It feels like in the last year the ball has been rolling in the wrong direction, which is a shame because it really is a smashing event, and used to be a great social occasion. The two best live events I have attended in recent times in terms of atmosphere and buzz were the Full Tilt festival in Galway and the Norwegian Championship at City West. 1,000 plus people (the majority of whom were Irish) turned out in Galway and over 2,000 crazy Norwegians turn up to City West every year. I rest my case!
Neymar signs for Pokerstars
Very impressive signing — one of the biggest stars in world football should bring an even bigger buzz to EPT Barcelona when it kicks off in August. With the signing of Radal Nadel and the culling of the Team Pro roster it is clear pokerstars see sports stars as great marketers for there brand. I would have to agree with the similarities between sport and poker.
South America is one of the emerging poker markets and the signing of one of their biggest stars should do wonders to promote the game there. One side note, I would have loved to have seen Pokerstars sign our current world champion Martin Jacobson — a great example of a what a young poker pro should aspire to: hard working, looks after himself, humble, speaks well, equally strong online and live — the full package.
EPT Returning to Dublin/ MPN Tour Debuting
Great news for Irish poker with the return of the EPT in February of next year. With the Norwegian championships, the Irish Open, and now the EPT all in the early half of the year — get grinding folks!
Dublin should make for a great venue. Dublin airport is top class, making it very accessible, the ingenious people are highly skilled and are super friendly and warm , and no better place to have fun away from the tables that Dublin! So fingers crossed it is a big success and makes for a permanent stop on the EPT tour.
Also in September of this year we have the MPN tour coming to Dublin. They are putting up a 250k guaranteed main event. It is great that these companies are choosing Dublin as a destination, so pencil that one in the diary also.
Full Tilt IPO
This weekend I am heading out to Bray for the Full Tilt hosted IPO. I think it is great that FT are hosting this. Let’s face it, Pokerstars have a lock on higher buy-in tours, such the highly successful EPT and UKIPT. To get a brand as strong as Full Tilt to be hosting this can only be great for grassroots poker and hopefully we will see more of the like in the future. They are expecting over five hundred runners over the two starting days, so should make for juicy prize pool so get involved!
I am intending to play Saturday, so hopefully see some of your there over weekend. There is also a $100 bounty on my head — so good luck with that!
And if I don’t see you there, catch up next week as am planing to do short report on the event. Hopefully I will last long enough to post an interesting hand!
Good luck everyone!
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