The people’s festival

The International Poker Open (IPO) is generally known as the people’s festival in Ireland. From its inception, it’s been the biggest grassroots poker festival in the country. It was the first multi-day event I played back in 2008 and I look forward to it every year. Last year we ran our first Chip Race event there, a mystery bounty, which is a format I have spent a lot of time investigating for my latest book, Mystery Bounty Poker Strategy.

No regrets though: just the right move at the wrong time

It took me four attempts but I finally managed to find a bag in the Main Event this year, short but not super short. I navigated that for an hour through the bubble on the feature table, and bust shortly thereafter in what looked like a good spot with eights after the aggressive chipleader opened and a very good loose player flatted until the chippy snapped my shove with kings. No regrets though: just the right move at the wrong time.

During the week I’d popped in and out of the commentary booth where Andrew Hedley did a sterling job all week joined by various guests, most of them either current or former students of mine I strong-armed into the booth. They all did brilliantly, but special praise for Thomas Murphy, a young guy I first saw and was massively impressed by when he was deep in this year’s Irish Poker Open, and who I believe will have a massive future in the game if he sticks with it and gets the breaks. Tomo is only 23 and it was his first time behind the mic, and everyone was raving to me about how good he was.

The Main Event

As I said earlier, I (slightly better than) min cashed the Main Event. My co-author Barry Carter did even better, busting late Dy 2 not far from the final table. One of the most amusing aspects (to me at least) of our working relationship has been to see his evolution from clueless recreational suspicious of solvers to someone who is now very adept, not just at running his own solves, but interpreting and internalizing the output. Like many of the recreationals I coach, he says that discovering the beauty in solvers reignited his flagging passion for the game.

Ray is the classic recreational, successful in life so he has no desire to ever make poker his job

One of my students Ray Wheatley did even better, going all the way to the final table. Ray is the classic recreational, successful in life so he has no desire to ever make poker his job. When he came to me first he admitted he felt outclassed when he was lucky enough to final table the Irish Open, and he didn’t like the feeling. I remember him telling me with characteristic modesty:

“I’m a terrible player, and I don’t think I’ll ever be good, I just want to be a little less terrible”

That was an unduly pessimistic assessment of his potential. The reality is that due to his intense focus and hard work, Ray is a better player than many pros I know, and has a more professional approach when he does play than most of them. We met just before kick-off on the final day for some last-minute advice.

Ray ran terribly on the last day, but hung in with characteristic grit to finish 6th.

A humbling

Ultimately it came down to a heads-up battle between local PLO high stakes player Barry Moore (or Big Bet Barry as he is affectionately known) and Belgian Steven Rothheut. Moore played a very impressive FT where he showed an ability to switch gears. I have to confess I had no idea who Steven was before the event but did have a few amusing interactions with him during the event.

With three tables left my co-author Barry sent me a message asking me to bring a copy of our book GTO Poker Simplified as he’d been moved to the feature table and wanted to plug it. Unfortunately, by the time I got there, they’d decided his face was just too ugly for sensitive audiences and he was back on an outer table. I gave him a copy of the book anyway just in case he got back on feature.

He bust shortly after, still on the outer table. When I went to check on Ray Wheatley, Steven held up my book and said:

“This is your book, yes?”

“Yes. Do you want me to sign it?”

His look was one of total confusion. It was about now I realized he had no clue who I was much less the author of the book he was holding. He’d just seen me hand it to Barry earlier, so knew it belonged to me. I took the book and slunk off, suitably humbled.

Critical mind

The following day I was waiting in the hotel bar for Ray to give him some last-minute advice before he went back for the final day with 11 left. Steven was at the next table positively bellowing into his phone, rendering it impossible not to overhear. He was clearly talking to his coach or mentor.

“Ok so I can open wide but can’t call too many three bets? And no bluffing? Ok.”

This game plan served him very well as he navigated through the early stages of the final table before opening up when it got three-handed. Along the way, he unwittingly provided some of the best entertainment for the home viewers.

he reportedly criticized the play of one opponent just after he busted

I’d already heard from people who shared table time with him that he has a penchant for dissecting each hand at the table critically and isn’t shy about telling someone if he thinks they played a hand badly. This continued on the final table when he reportedly criticized the play of one opponent just after he busted. I was on commentary three-handed and it was particularly amusing to see him craning his neck constantly to look at his neighbor’s stack, getting him to move his hands and generally getting under his skin.

Doke and the gang

Apart from my Main Event cash, I made two side event final tables, the first in the warmup event right at the start, the second in the Saturday Night Freezeout, where I lost heads-up to Norwegian visitor Jarl Ove Malmstrom. About my age, he told me he prefers playing in Ireland because:

“In Norway, all the young guys think they’re world champions and criticize all your plays, but here people play for fun.”

Several of my students, ex-students and ex-horses put up some nice results too. Nick “don’t touch my hair” Newport took down the Super High Roller, Stephen Kavanagh took 6th place in the High Roller, and Shane Kelly took down the Mini Main.

Overall the IPO was a massive success and continues to be a highlight on the Irish calendar, providing locals with the best opportunity to get on a live-streamed feature table for a modest buyin and be called a calling station by guest commentator Keith Touhey.