Letter from Doke and News from Irish Eyes Gaming 9th July 2012

Welcome to this week's letter, which contains a catch up on how things are going here in Vegas, a strategy section, news on the Kerry September Sizzler Tournament and online promotions for July.

I'm writing this letter the night before I play day 1B of the WSOP main event. I'm going in feeling confident about my form after cashing in my last WSOP side event, and also in my only Venetian Deepstack of the summer.

In the WSOP side event, I got off to an amazing start, moving from 3K starting to 30K shortly after dinner. Nick Abou Risk tweeted me to say I was apparently chipleader at that point according to Pokernews. Unfortunately I lost a bit of ground late in the day but was still happy to bag up almost 25k. I lost half my stack early on day 2 in an unfortunate hand where I had queens on a t54 flop (versus ten four off), which left me with about 20 bigs. I stayed in that zone for the rest of my time in the tournament, eventually going out shoving king queen into queens. It's probably the least disappointed I've ever been after busting a major tournament as I pretty much felt I'd gone as far as I possibly could have given the cards and situations.

For anyone wanting to follow my progress in the main event, I'll be tweeting updates from my Twitter account (daraokearney).

Things have been going well for the 2 lads I'm rooming with as well. Daragh Davey just can't stop making day 2's and notched up yet another side event cash. And Jason Tompkins achieved the best result of any Irish player so far this series when he final tabled a 1K side event. 6 handed, he lost a massive flip against the best of the other players left. Had he won that, I think he was probably odds on for the bracelet. Amazing run and performance by Jason, who really did Irish poker proud.

In last week's letter, I went through one interesting bubble spot Jason had in the $2500 Mixed Holdem event and mentioned he had another. This was when he opened 99 under the gun, and an elderly recreational player shoved all in for ten big blinds. As a general rule a good player won't raise and then fold to a 10 big blind shove purely because of the price they're getting to call (over 2 to 1 in this case). However, Jason correctly reasoned that the only hand his opponent would move all in with in this spot (on a big bubble) was a big pair. Against a looser opponent who might reshove AK and pairs as low as jacks, it becomes a call. The reason for this is that even though the pairs crush us, we flip with ace king, and ace king is more likely (there are 16 possible ace king combinations, but only 6 of each pair), so against the total range of ace king and jacks or better, 2 to 1 is the correct price.
Curiously enough, if you think he'll shove tens also, it now becomes a fold. The presence of one extra pair that crushes nines in the range increases the pot odds needed from 2 to 1 to 2.2 to 1.

For those interested in a poker trip to Kerry in September, CueClub Events (Connie O'Sullivan and Matt Dobbins) are holding a €200 buy-in tournament with €15,000 guaranteed in Darby O'Gills Country House Hotel Killarney on the 8th September. This is a 2 day event and will no doubt be a great tournament if history of CueClub Events tournaments are anything to go by. Online satellites for buy-in and hotel B&B in Darby O'Gills are on Irish Eyes Poker starting this Sunday evening at 8pm. These €20 buy-in satellites will run each Sunday upto the event.

Irish Eyes are also launching the new Hand Replayer in July.
To celebrate the launch of the new software which allows players to reply their hands, Irish Eyes Poker is offering prizes for special hands. (The following promotions are valid only in cash games and only when a minimum of three players have received cards.)

Texas Triple AA Special - Win a MacBook Air!

Get AA as your starting hand three times in a row at the same cash game table, regardless of the stakes you're playing, and win an Apple MacBook Air notebook (11" Core i5 1.6 GHz 64 GB SSD)!

This promotion is available on all real money Texas Hold'em tables. To claim a prize, players must send an email to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 31 July. The e-mail should contain the following information:
Subject: "Triple AA MacBook claim"
- Hand History number of the first AA hand
- Poker nickname
- Full home address

Texas Triple Same Pair Special

Get the same pair, deuces to kings, as starting hand three times in a row at the same cash game table and win €200.

This promotion is available on all real money Texas Hold'em tables. To claim a prize, players must send an email to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 31 July. The e-mail should contain the following information:
- Subject: "Triple Same Pair claim"
- Hand History number of the first pair hand
- Poker nickname

Omaha Quad Aces Special

Get Four-of-a-Kind aces as your starting hand in 4-card Omaha and win €100.

This promotion is only available on real money 4-Card Omaha and 4-Card Omaha H/L. To claim a prize, players must send an email to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 31 July. The e-mail should contain the following information:
- Subject: "Omaha Quad Aces claim"
- Hand History number of the quad aces hand
- Poker nickname

Omaha High Quads Special

Get Four of a Kind kings, queens, or jacks as your starting hand in 4-card Omaha and win €50.

This promotion is only available on real money 4-Card Omaha and 4-Card Omaha H/L. To claim a prize, players must send an email to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 31 July. The e-mail should contain the following information:
- Subject: "Omaha High Quads claim"
- Hand History number of the quad hand
- Poker nickname

Four the Win! - Sit & Go Promotion

Win four Super Turbo Sit &Go tournaments in a row on the same level and win a cash prize!
Sit & Go's qualifying for this promotion are marked (PROMO) in the lobby.
Super Turbo SitGo (PROMO) Holdem NL €2 + €0.2 Prize = €200
Super Turbo Sit&Go (PROMO) Holdem NL €10 + €1 Prize = 700

(Please note that the collation of tournaments is determined by time of registration.)To claim a prize, send an e-mail with the following information to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 31 July.
- Subject "Four the Win claim"
- Tournament ID of the first Sit & Go in the series (in the poker lobby under Account Information/Last Transactions)
- Poker nickname

MacBook Air VIP SPECIAL

On Sunday, 8 July at 20:30, three players will have a chance to win a MacBook Air in a special tournament. The buy-in is 50 VIP points that must be earned starting from 1 July.

Prizes:
Three (3) Apple MacBook Air notebooks (11" Core i5 1.6 GHz 64 GB SSD). The maximum number of participants is 1000, 3000 in starting chips, and 12 minutes levels. To claim a prize, send an e-mail with the following information to promo@igt.com no later than Tuesday, 10 July.
- Subject "MacBook Tournament claim"
- Poker nickname
- Full home address

Freerolls:
Don't forget to 'Like' our Team Irish Eyes Poker page on Facebook and you can get the password to the Weekly Facebook €100 Freeroll every Wednesday night. Here is the link http://www.facebook.com/pages/Team-Irish-Eyes-Poker/112290065454803

Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)

Doke

Click on the links below for details on all Irish Eyes Poker Promotions, Blogs, and News.
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Join Team Irish Eyes Poker on Facebook - click here
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Keep up to date on Doke's blog - click here
Interview with Per Hildebrand - click here
Play Fast Online Poker on your Mobile or iPad on Terminal Poker. For Signup Offer - click here
Play live poker with the Celtic Poker Tour. For next events and news - click here