The Cookie Monster

So, like I mentioned in my post about our trip to Berlin. I had convinced Tim to come to Dublin to play the UKIPT. This was a little bit ago at this stage, so I'm going to give it my best shot at remembering what happened.

Kev and myself decided that we were going to play Day 1a of the UKIPT. We thought it'd be a little softer, with a lot of the pros like Tim travelling in a day later to save on accommodation. I got a much tougher table draw than I had in previous UKIPT's. Although there was a still a couple of soft spots. It wasn't long before I was hating live poker again. People are just so incredibly slow, and it's so tilting. I ended day 1 with a decent stack, mostly coming from me constantly bet, bet, jamming with air. They literally just can't call in live poker. Refuse to put their tournament life on the line. I also had one hand towards the end of the day where a vamoooo spazzed out to me. Think I went back with approx 50k, going into 500/1k. My hat got me a bit of attention, even got up on the pokerstars blog. It's funny how some people can just make day 2s of UKIPTs and get pics, yet others can't even get there pic in the top 35 of a EPT.

Kermit Hat...

Tim (bakinc00kies) arrived in late on the Thursday night, so myself or Kev didn't get to see him as he went and stayed in Marcs hotel that he had won as part of the package from Stars. The two of them were playing 1b on the Friday. Of course Marc got to head back to bed early as he failed to make the antes in yet another live tournament. Tim however, been the live pro he is cruised into day 2 with a similar stack to myself. Now obviously with Day 2 on the Saturday, the smart thing to do would have been to get a good nights sleep. And obviously that wasn't going to happen. We had to show Tim what 'The Home' was all about. Our local night club. 

So Marc and Tim got the €100 taxi fare from their hotel in City West out to our house in Skerries. And the drinking began. Of course we were full of good intentions. However, a bottle of grey goose and a lot of beers later these were all out the window.

UKIPT Tomorrow? 5 more shots.. We got this...

To be quite honest, with the length of time ago this was I can't remember much of the night. I just know that I'd lost my card, and ended up having to get two girls to bring me home in a taxi as the lads had ditched me. When I got there, Marc and Kevin already had themselves girls. I actually found a picture of Marc's one on my camera funnily enough!!

This is her good side!!!

So obviously this had worked out quite well, meant myself and Tim had a girl each. The only problem was it was about 5am and had to back at the poker room for 12. So was working off borrowed time. These next few lines do not make me a proud man. I managed to get one of the girls up to my room, however she was having none of it. And to be honest at this stage I was just tired so didn't care. Tim however was a determined man. He managed to convince the two of them to stay, and got them up to bed. So shit surely went down now right? Nope. The four us just spooned in the bed. At least we went Boy-Girl-Boy-Girl. I eventually fell asleep after what felt like forever. At least when I woke up the girls had fucked off so it was a little bit of a result. 

My Dad been the sound man he is, agreed to bring myself and Tim over in the morning. So en-route, after stopping off for some much needed water supplies, he made me feel slightly guilty for been in such a state because he had bought 10% of me in the UKIPT. I assured him I'd got this. Tim bust an hour or two into the day when he lost JJ-AA. I was somewhat envious of him getting to go up and enjoy bed. It was also the day of the play-off final, the Heineken cup and the Champions League Final. 

I can honestly say I played the best poker I've probably ever played on day 2 of the UKIPT. I had a lot of fun, and felt like I was constantly putting people in tough spots. However it all sort of unraveled after about 6 hours play. I think the lack of sleep caught up on me, I called down for half my stack on a paired board with a flopped straight. I think if I had of still be completely in the zone I would have found the fold. Then when it was about 10 off the money I 4bet A9o into AQ and that was that. It felt like a good spot, however maybe I should have just nitted it up until the money then gambooled. I had lots of fun and even sported some more Kermit gear. I would have went ALL out if I had of made the final table.

Day 2 UKIPT...

The plan was originally to go out on the Saturday. And to be honest, I can't even remember if we did. I just remember watching Chelsea literally rob Bayern Munich of the Champions League. I have to say though I was delighted for Drogba. Even though at times I didn't like him over the years, he really deserved it in the end I think.

Tim was staying with us for the week, and then flying on to Manchester on the Friday to meet some girl he knew. He had just start playing on his own recently, so he was getting his grind on. And what a life he leads. He used up some of the Irish IP address run goot and shipped the Big 55 for approx $17k which was a decent bank roll boost. 

Just shipping the Big 55... 

After a week of grinding, we convinced Tim to delay his flight by one day to Manchester and have another night out with us. He duly obliged. He bought us all Blue for the week early on Friday afternoon. That was when the drinking started. And with it been over a month ago, again I can't remember much of the night. So I'm just going to leave some pictures and say Tim, it was a pleasure <3

The lads... 

Getting our creep on with randomers...

Bro love

Just want to say a quick thanks to Danny from IPB for the two pictures of me in the Kermit gear. Always does a ridiculously good job on the updates for liveaments and takes some good pics imo. 

We're the 3 best friends!!!!

Just doing a quick update, so that my next two posts make sense. This happened a while ago but I've just been too lazy to keep this updated. After we got back from Berlin. Kev and myself went looking for a house. We wanted to stay local enough to our friends, so ended up settling on a 4 bedroom house in Skerries. It's a little bit old fashioned, but it's half the price I was paying for my apartment in Dublin and will do the job. So Marc moved in as well, so we thought it'd be time to grind.....................

Ye quick look, messy as fuck obv...

Haven't mentioned much in regards to poker lately, just mainly because I think it'd just become boring and repetitive if was always talking about it. However I'm in a little bit of make-up at the moment. And constantly changing my mind about going on my own/playing just 180s. Still have no idea what to do.

Graph since last posted it...

Even though I've been playing mostly Mtts. Looking at that just made me realize how lazy I've been lately when it comes to grinding. That's like 10 weeks play which is just ridic. I just checked out my 180s since I've been mixing them in with Mtts and literally just decided right now I'm probably going to grind them to get out of make-up and see what I think when I clear. 

180s part-time

Lately I've at least got myself on track in regards to diet and fitness. Cooked my own dinner every day the last week (flex). And have had zero shit food at all. Been going running when the sun comes up every morning also. But Kev told me if I get into a normal sleeping pattern he'd go with me in the mornings. So going to attempt that. 

The Wolf Pack

Not allowed put this on facebook, so I thought may as well put it somewhere (sun). I'm 100% going to update the blog again tomorrow. I have 2/3 more posts to write until I'm up to date with real life. And we're having a sort of late house-warming party this Friday so that will require another post I'd imagine. So the quicker I get up to date the better!!

Berlin.....

We arrived in Berlin in the evening, after our four hour stop over in Switzerland. I'm just going to warn people now, if you're not printing the bills, I'd stay clear of Switzerland. Obviously I only got to see the airport, so maybe the prices were even a little bit more inflated, but 17e for a burger from Maccy D's and 5e for a bottle of water was enough of an indication to suggest it was slightly out of my price range.

Switzerland...Connecting people!

So after a serious lack of sleep, and not looking the best we arrived in the Grand Hyatt. Which is a 5 star hotel, Marc had won as part of his package for the EPT. There was a problem however, Marc could only put on other name on the room. So we had to ninja the shit out of it. So as I spoke to the lady on the desk and got the room key, Kev set off on a mission to get to Marcs room. I couldn't help but laugh as I approached the lift and seen him looking like a stranded puppy inside one of them. Of course in a 5 star hotel, you need a room key to access the lift. Oh are naivety. We got greeted with this upon our arrival in Marcs room.

Deeece life...

We hadn't been in touch with Marc for a few hours, so we were a bit disappointed not to have a sweat. Yet at the same time 32nd place and €17.5k is hardly to be frowned upon. Tim and Parker had busted shortly before Marc as well, so that meant one thing. Drinking time. So we gathered a crowd, got the vodka and beers into us and off into Berlin we went. After walking for what felt like forever, looking for a decent bar, we settled in what I think was some sort of a restaurant getting ready to close. Of course, as always when poker players get together, each round was going to be decided by credit card roulette. Now for anyone who doesn't understand how that works, everyone gives a card in, and one by one they are eliminated until there is one remaining and they obviously pay for be it a round of drinks, dinner, rent or whatever you happen to be flipping for.

There was about seven or eight of us in this restaurant, so I think each round was working out at around €50/€60. I had to put two cards into each flip, as I'd dragged Kev to Berlin on the condition that I payed for everything. So I was expecting to lose a few quid here. However in the first round, both my cards got eliminated early, and Tim got stung for the first round. The fun was just about to start. Martin (moertelmu) has a bit of a reputation for moaning. To the extent where just a few days before we flew out the Berlin, a gimmick account had appeared on 2+2 under the name 'MoaningMue'. So when he lost the second round the cheers went up, the poor owners of the restaurant had no idea what was going on. Martin's card and mine were the remaining two for the 3rd round, it was so obvious that everyone in the room was rooting for Martin to lose. Low and behold, he lost and we just erupted it, was hilarious. The owners seemed to be getting a little bit frustrated at this stage, so we agreed one more round and we'd move on. It was down to myself and Martin yet again, except this time I had both my cards in. I let Martin call, 1st, 2nd or 3rd card. And he pulled out the one repping Kev, was such a sick sweat now. If I dodged all of this, and Martin lost 3 in a row, would just be ridic. So usually, one person decides if it's the card in the left hand or right hand, then the other decides if it pays or not. However, I wanted Martin to decide his faith. Of course he picked out his own card, between the rest of us we nearly lifted the roof off the restaurant. We quickly did our shots and were basically ushered out by the owners, sick of us at this stage. 

I'd heard all about the sick underground scene in Berlin, and was seriously excited to get into one. However, we got taxi after taxi in an attempt to find somewhere we could all get in. If the bouncers didn't like the look of you there was just no chance. Also seemed they weren't too keen on foreigners, and once you showed the Irish passport it was no-go. We finally found somewhere that was going to let us in, so as were getting asked for ID, Tim 'Baby Face' Bettigen realizes he hasn't got any. He then proceeded to attempt to bribe his way into the club for €50, in the most epic fail I've probably ever witnessed. Been the great lad he is, he told us to go on in anyway. So Marc, Kev and myself went in, don't remember much other than you got 50c per bottle you brought back and been shot down by every foreign girl I attempted to creep on.

Know the one that's one too many.....

That was Marc as we arrived back to the hotel, pretty sure he was convinced it was a girl. Anyway, with the Hyatt been as awesome as it is, we decided to order from it's 24 hour room service. Poor girl on the phone, I was absolutely hammered, attempting to order a BLT without the lettuce or tomato. Couldn't have just asked for a bacon sandwich, would have been far too easy. So after we got our 2 sandwich's and one burger, which came to a ridiculous €60 or something. We got involved in the most in-depth review of a single  MTT strategy hand ever. Analyzing every single response, and just laughing away at how retarded some people are. 

€17 bacon sambo at 5am like ya do....

The next morning after dying a little bit first, we'd decided we were going to do some touristy shit. Usually I'd frown upon something like this if my Mum or Dad suggested it when we were away back in the day. However I was kind of excited for it. Guess I'm getting old. After getting some food, (Parker lost the flip, sick run good) off into Berlin to see some of their history we went. The first thing Marc brought us to was where the Berlin wall came down. It's pretty crazy that it was up until only about 20-25 years ago or so.

Kev, Parker, Me at the wall..

We then got on this kind of bike thing, which the four of us could sit on. For something so simple it was ridic fun. I had the sick sweat of going backwards and the guy on the bike was just taken the piss out of me trying to scare me. We seen some other things like the government buildings. Then we proceeded to just float around on the out-skirts of the cities, basically been tourists. After all the walking, we were exhausted, which led to us discussing of hourlys ;) Decided we needed to get some beers and get going for tonight, so we hoped in a taxi and back to the hotel.

On the bike in front of something I'm pretty sure is famous??

Goverment buildings...

Was only our second night, but also our last night in Berlin. Kev and I were getting a flight at 5am so the plan was to not go too mad. That's always the plan. Parker and Marc had spare bands for the EPT, so obviously Kev and I binked them and were off to part of the bawla crowd. As you can imagine a poker party, isn't exactly going to be full of girls. So we availed of the free drinks for an hour or so before heading back to the hotel bar During that hour maybe the highlight of my life occurred? Liv Boree brushed off as I was going to the bar. Yep you heard it. HIGHLIGHT OF MY LIFE. It wasn't my first time seeing her in person, but she is still ridiculously hot. 

Ept band (That I'm still wearing)

Marc and Parker met up with two girls they had sexed previously to me and Kev been in Berlin. I have to say it made me proud. They got with them on the Sunday and the girls had to leave for school on Monday morning straight from the Hyatt. Just made me lol so much. If that wasn't enough. There was an incident with Parkers girl, that resulted in new sheets been needed and a €20 tip for the cleaners of the hotel room (bandit). So we were drinking in the hotel bar, and I finally lost my first flip. Even though it was like €20 a vodka or so, I was still running exceptional hot on this trip. Marc and Parker disappeared off up to the rooms with the girls, so Kev, Josh and myself headed off into Berlin in an attempt to find a club again. If it was tough the first night, with no native speakers it just wasn't going to happen. I was pretty frustrated and locked, so I abused some bouncers pretty hard. Not my finest hour. We just headed back to the hotel, talked some shit with Josh in his room for a while. Convinced Tim to fly to Dublin for the UKIPT and were off to the airport. 

There was one last problem however. Our flight was in about 90 mins and there was two airports in Berlin quite some decent from one another. We just took a gambool............ Thankfully it was correct and we made it home. I'd defo go back to Berlin, and this trip has made me want to see more and more of Europe. 

Nearly have this up to date now, ambitious, but maybe in the next day or two I'll get it fully up to date and it can become a more regular thing again.