Is how Nicky Power described my Waterford Open experience last weekend. I like Nicky a lot. Hes a quality poker player but more importantly he's one of life's nice guys, a real gem of a fella. I only chatted to him briefly over the weekend but the few words he spoke made a lot of sense to me and I'm grateful for people like him in Irish poker as there seems to be 25 idiots for every solid guy.
We were discussing my untimely exit from the Waterford ME in which I lost my whole stack with aces just as it appeared I might be on for a big hurrah. I finished up in 20th which I suppose constitutes as a success as only one week ago I felt my game was all over the place (as Keith quickly pointed out yesterday) but when you get nothing from a tourney it generally always feels lousy. An hour prior to my exit there were 25 left and I had double the average. I perhaps arrogantly believed at that point that I should be winning or at least final-tabling. I guess I can take comfort in that I most certainly didn't fold my way to elimination and my exit could well have spring boarded me to a win on another day had the cards fell right.
I have been quick to praise Big Slick in the past on the Poker Ireland site for their tournaments but I must say this year's Open was no doubt inferior to previous installments. The Majestic was not an improvement on the Woodlands, in fact i would consider it subordinate in comparison. The turnout was way down from the 275 reached last time which was also a pity. Even the chips and tables seemed to be of a lesser quality than previous efforts. Finally I missed Neil Kelly's running commentary throughout the tournament. This is what made Waterford unique in the past. Hearing all the key hands, the chip counts and all the general banter over the speakers made for great entertainment. In fact the only joke I heard Neil crack last weekend was about getting the residents to buy the non-residents drinks in the bar. I'm pretty sure the mic was acting up which was probably the reason for this but again it's kinda disappointing when things change from what has been the norm before. I like Big Slick and hope they recognise this for future events as it would be a real shame to see their (somewhat exclusively imo) standards drop.
So with Waterford behind me I guess I have played my last poker tournament before Vegas. I fly out Sunday morning on the DUB-LA-LAS route in what should be the most intriguing few weeks of my poker adventures to date.
I hope to update my blog regularly while out there (every day if I get the chance) as I'm sure there will be plenty of tales to tell along the way. I'll make one more pre-Vegas post before I depart so until then:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Enjoy Vegas,
Pleasure as always having you at the poker table with me.
I was gonna say send a postcard, but I could be showing my age (does anyone send a postcard nowadays??)
Try to keep your blog updated.
Nicky's a gem all right, a real gentleman who always has a kind word for up and comers.
Have a great Vegas and hopefully see you over there.
tks for the kind words Gary, hope you have a great Vegas my friend. I think the lads at bigslick dropped the ball a little, I said in my blog that they were disappointed with the numbers but in reality i think they were very lucky that the numbers were down as I don't the hotel was suitable for anymore. I think there focus was more on the big event in killarney there running in october with Connie. This is a big one for them and I'm sure that most of there energies
are being spent on this. I'm also sure it will be great. best of luck again in vegas
Post a Comment