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.   

I GOT BIG DREAMS....

After Nottingham, Kev and myself decided we had to get our grind on. Marc and Tim were flying straight from the UKIPT to Berlin for the EPT. We wanted that to be us, we didn’t see any reason why it couldn’t be. We just had to actually start grinding. But..... The Champions League semi-final between Chelsea and Barcelona was on.  So we decided to take the Thursday off, and enjoy the game up in mine with my Dad. At half-time, I decided to late-reg the big 11. Instantly regretted it, and tried to punt the shit out of it. I even posted one hand for lols in the MTTc chat where I 4b/c 108 suited and asked for strategy advice.  Some of the dolts actually thought I was been serious. I obviously got there vs KK by the way.

Anyway, before I knew it I’d got down to the last 100 players, and there was close to 13k for the win. I decided I should really try and win this. I mean one table a big to victory? Who lives like this? Chelsea had just defeated Barcelona with 10 men and Torres had scored. Anything could happen.  I was talking to Parker on facebook with about 70 to go, and he made me agree that I’d fly to Berlin in the morning if I won it. Snap agreed of course.

Pretty much coasted down to the last two tables, thanks to no skill at all and my attempts to punt I had gathered quite a stack. Parker and Marc were railing from their hotel room in Berlin, even though they were going to play Day 3 of a 5k the next day. Then with about 18 to go, I got it in with AQcc vs KJcc for all the gold. KJxcc flop. I had this. Was running to good to miss. Brick. Brick. Igh. Down to 7bbs and I’d kept Marc and Parker up railing me to fail. Then I received a txt from my buddy Taz. Simple read, ‘Everyone loves a come back story’. Shipped A4o from the c/o and was snapped by the big blinds A10. 4 on the flop. Ezzzz game. I chipped up slightly, and had around 22 bigs when the biggest hand of the tournament happened. The guy on my left had been jamming over me a tonne. I opened QQ from the cut-off and he minned it back on the button. Straight away alarms went off in my head, and I felt sick. Then the big-blind insta jams all-in. My first instinct was snap fold, but given the positions and how aggro I’d been, plus the fact folding QQ with 20 biebers is usually not great. I put it in. BAM, over-called straight. AA vs KK vs QQ. ‘Fucccck’.. Threw my mouse away, I was so pissed off with myself for not going with my first instinct. Turn away in disgust. And alls I hear from Kev is ‘Omg, hold... Hold...’ Qxx flop. Blank. Blank. Was time to win this tournament.

I had so much fun leading up to the final table. I was literally opening any two cards, and 3-betting every single open. Trying to apply as much pressure as possible. Then on the FT bubble vs the biggest fish left, I lost a huge pot where I had to fold AA on the turn, even though I had about two-thirds of my stack in the middle. Think I puked a little in my mouth at the moment. Didn’t matter though, because the run good continued when we made the FT  and I got 1010 in vs 99 for heaps with 9 to go. However, the roller-coaster was to continue, losing a huge flip with AK to JJ with 7 to go. At this point I was almost accepting defeat. Parker even threw in a new condition, if I were to make top 3 I had to fly to Berlin. I accepted thinking, seriously I have like 2 bigblinds. What are the odds.

Couple of hours later I got second for just under 10k. I punted heads up pretty bad, bluffed raised all in on the river vs the biggest station ever. It was still my biggest score to date, really wish I had of broken the 5 figure barrier however. So then I realised. I actually had to go to Berlin now. I got the man who knows all about last minute flights, Jono Crute to find the cheapest possible flights for me. 180e return, and I would have to go Viva Switzerland and the flight was leaving in 5 hours. I convinced Kev to come with me. I put what clean clothes I could find in a bag and off down to Kevs we were for his Mam to drive to the airport. It was the middle of the night, so obviously I didn’t want to wake my Dad. So I left this note behind for him.

I will finish this trip report over the weekend, got Dublin UKIPT in the morning. And would love to have this up to date. Hopefully will have a final table to write about (sun)

Jaaaagers!!!

Ok, so it's been forever since I updated this. And we've had a few adventures in the mean time.

Laura's friends from Wales came over a couple of weeks ago now. Made me realise that Dublin has actually got to be a terrible spot for tourists. When asked what to do, I was really stumped. I mean the only touristy thing I can think of to do is visit the Guinness factory, of course living up to the typical drunken Irish stereo-type.

We brought them out to get fucked up however. Went to 'The Palace' on Wednesday, hadn't been there since I was living in town last year when was living in town. Think the girls had a good night so that was all that mattered really. After failing in bribes to the man on the door of the girls hotel in an attempt to gain entry, ended up back in Kev McKeown's house. 5 of us the bed. Zero sex had. #Losing.

Few of the Cardiff girls

 I'm pretty sure I mentioned in a previous post that I was heading over the the UKIPT in Nottingham. And of course Kev managed to somehow get himself into the tournament as well, between selling action and getting Zima taken some of it on his deal. We got over there on the Wednesday and were playing day 1b on the Thursday. So of course the plan was to have a quiet one or two. That's always the plan.

Laura and Emma had come down with Bristol, and a few of the lads Kev knew from Ibiza and I had met at Laura's birthday were coming out too. The first bar we got into had a problem. We were faced with this sign.

Now rather than accept defeat. With the shots been £1, our first round consisted of two tequilas and two sambucas each. There was no salt or lemon. Itssssss a probluuuum. So after taken approximately a thirty second break between one of my shots, Marc and Kev made me 'Man the fuck up'. Three more of these rounds, and the night is a bit of a blur. All I have to remember about it is this picture.

Looks like we were having a good time anyway

The next morning we had a case of Déjà vu, going to play $1ks and hanging like never before. Marc hated me like never before also. He needs to learn to drink. Couple of shots and he's bed bound for up to two days. There was rumors that you had to abide by the 'The Dusk till Dawn' dress code, however I laughed this off, considering we were paying almost 100e in rake. No laughs when we got there, and Kev and myself were sent back to the hotel to change out of our fatmans. Wasn't a great start to the day needless to say. 

Even though I was hanging, when play finally got under play, I approached it a lot differently to UKIPT Galway. I felt in Galway I was just too nitty pre-ante. I decided I was either going to accumulate a lot of chips early or go busto. I got a pretty soft table draw originally, and went from 15k - 30k with very little showdowns. I was constantly moving around tables for the day, usually I'd consider it a disadvantage, however the fact that I was so active, moving around a lot allowed me to get away with it all day. Towards the end of the day, I'd chipped up to approx 90k, aided by two orbits in a row the button shoving 10 bigs into my Kings in the bigblind.

We'd been playing for approximately 12 hours, and there was one more level to go, and yet again I got moved table. Kev and Conor had long busted, and were tempting me with a session. Add in the fact that Emma and Laura had come down from Wales, ALSO, that had the next day off because was the third day 1, I thought it'd be rude not. I worked it out and coming back the next day at t1600 I'd have at least 50bigs. So I cleared it with the TD that my stack would be looked after and off I was. Got royally fucked up with Conor and Kev, stayed drinking in Tom and Darrens house until about 9/10am. Went back to the hotel, got a few hours kip. I of course was full of good intentions, but that night after Aaron came down from Leeds. We ended up out again. Not the best preparation for my first day 2 of a big liveament.

I was still pretty drunk I think the next day, talking nonsense at the table. When the bubble burst, I got 6/9 of my table to agree to do Jaggers. Which was a pretty good effort. Even got me a cool live pro pic on the blog because of it.

How Jelly You Marc

I triple barreled in a pretty questionable spot just before the money. Which left me with a shortish stack. When the bubble burst, I chipped up a bit, as live players are just so nitty. Then with about 110 to go I lost a flip with 66 vs AQ. Was still a cool experience and has me looking forward to Dublin.

 I've probably missed loads of this, and haven't included a lot of pictures I wanted to. I'm going to put up a better post in the next few days about one-tabling a dream to victory ha. Hopefully it be a bit better and not as rushed.

Lezzzzgooo!...

Delighted to finally be into April, going to get the head down and actually play the games I should be playing!!. Obviously I should have listened to Bogan and Marc at the beginning of last month and just played Mtts, rather than participating in that stupid 2s bet. The winner of the bet in the end had like 7k games played. Fair play to him, but his hourly probably would have been matched at Maccy Ds, with weekends off.

2s for March

I'm hopefuly finished with 2s now forever. They seriously depress me. I had to grind out 500 of them on the 30th/31st of March because I had that prop bet with Marc to get 2500 games in for the month. It's pretty ridiculous I left it to so late to get the games, I mean I had approx 1500 games after the first week. But I guess it's the same with everything, when I was in school or College. Everything was ALWAYS left until the last minute!.

March overall

 

Was a pretty good month for me overall, even if I lost 2/3 prop bets. I'm now out of make-up and really looking forward to a strong April. Again I'll probably be taken close to a week off as I'm going over to Nottingham to play the UKIPT. Still un-decided if I'm going to sell any action for that. I mean I know I probably should as the plan is to move in with Marc at the end of this month. However, I sattied in. And who doesn't love a dream. 

Last mention poker wise in this post, could have had a decent Sunday today accept I punted stacks quite bad, which I'm still working on cutting out. Just seems to be Sundays that brings out the worst in me. I took 4th in a 360 cap as a day saver, even though I had a monster chip lead and should have shipped it. Still booked a small winning day which is always good when at one point was looking like my worst day backed.

Anyone, like I mentioned in my previous post I was meeting up with Jono (Gawa9) during the week. We all booked into Jurys Inn and met up in Temple Bar in this little steak house called 'Fxb'. I can honestly say. My mouth was having an orgasm for the entire meal. It was gorgeous. It was a quiet little restaurant, and it didn't know what had happened. The Norweigan poker championship was on in City West in Dublin, due to poker been illegal over there. And Jono been Jono, knew a few of these people. So we originally had a booking for 12, 2 Irish, 1 American, 1 N.Irish, 1 English, and 7 Norweigans. However, Jono got a call and another dozen or so Norweigans ended up in the restaurant. 

After dinner, we moved on to D2 on Hardcourt Street. Larz had a tabled booked there. My plan was to get Jono and Dan (Patman01) really fucked up. However they both seemed reluctant. So I purchased the first round of what turn into a cib war with Jono for rounds of Jaggers. I just know they were 3 for a 10r, and at least one round of 15 turned up. I'd love to go into detais in trip reports, however I'm just not sure who reads this blog, so may move it to 2+2 or something. Or at least to somewhere, where I won't incriminate myself. Anyways, before we left D2, Jono and myself provided this man with the biggest tip he's ever received apparently. Can't remember exactly how much it was, but I made him work for it by giving a big smile. 

Jono and Mr.Smiles he shall be called. 

We moved onto Coppers, unfortunately without Jono and Savanna. Who by the way I didn't mention. She just flew over to Ireland on a whim after meeting Jono for approximately 9 hours previous. Now she's travelling around Europe with him for the next 12 days. So fair play to her. Just going for it. Kev, Dan and myself went onto Coppers. Had a pretty good night, even if I got cock-blocked by some girls friends. They wouldn't let her come back to the hotel with me. Wish I had pics. Way out of my league, was too good to be true. At the end of the night, we gave it one last chance with a group of stragglers, however, even they weren't having it. Dan, the amateur was going to add them on facebook the next day. However, after hanging around with Kev and myself for a night he knows better. Nottingham will be fun with the Irish accents out in force. 

The lads and the stragglers

I know this is getting incredibly tl;dr. However, last thing. When Kev and myself ended up back in the hotel empty handed. What started off as who could do the best back flip running up the wall and onto bed. Kind of got out of hand. The second messy night in that hotel and won't be heading back in a hurry. Lauras friends from Wales are coming over on Wednesday, so I shall post a report after that. 

When normal sleeping just aint cutting it.....

At least it's on my Dads card... (bandit)

Getting the life on track...

So it's official... I am the most indecisive person in the world. Ever. But finally starting to get things sorted out a little bit. I thought it about it for quite a while, but I've decided to get backed again. I'm going to be backed by Marc and Bogan. I'm still unsure whether it's the best decision for me, because if I wanted I could grind out a roll for myself playing 2s and 3rs. However, in the long run I think it will be best for me to play a higher average buy-in and take advantage of the coaching on offer from Marc and David.

Also confirmed moving in with Marc come May the 1st, unsure whether I mentioned that previously. We're going to get a place local to myself for 3 months, then head off to TomorrowLand, and then possibly onto Bristol. Getting a place to rent for 3 months, for two people who are playing poker full time isn't the easiest. People just turn their noses up straight away when you mention poker. So... Here's the plan. I'm now a 'Risk Analyst for Tech-Matic' (My Dads company) and Marc will be Zeee German who is here on business. How could that fail?? :)

Since I start playing for Marc and Bogan it's been a lot of close calls. On the first day, I won a small 5c and small 2r (Which I tried to punt hard, then ended up with a stack, so played Fifa for a few hours came back and had 10bbs, got AA, quaded up and won it. Yep.. Skill game).. Since then I've made a few FTs and a good few around the FT bubble, on Saturday, stone cold bubbled a $25 hyper and like 12th in the Hot 33. Would have been pretty cool to ship either of them, think was like around 5k for fist in both. I've been trying really hard to cut out spewing deep in Mtts, and working to some degree, except one hand, where on the FT bubble of a 27.50 capped, I 4b jammed 10-8o like 30bbs effective when Marc told me the reg was a nit.

Going to update this again at the end of the month, will put in my total 2s graph, where I gave up on the bet and my overall graph. Going to hammer Kev in Fifa now hopefully, and taken tomorrow off to go for scoops with Jono (Gawa9). That should be fun. Updates to come.

Instead of a video I'm just going to post this - Jono's trip report, tomorrow will be fun!!!

Day 18 - Have no idea what I'm doing.

Pretty much didn't sleep a wink last night. Went home after beating Kev on away goals in our 2 legged nightly Fifa game. Was derlissssh. Nando in the last minute for Chelsea to take it on away goals!! Nom!!

Had to get up at 10am to go into my Mam, it been Mothers Day and all. So by the time I went and chilled with her for a little bit I was absolutely wrecked and didn't want to grind. Came down to Kevs anyway, and decided again...... I was going to go for the 2s bet. I only got 100 games in before I was just too tired to keep regging. 

March 18th 

Confirmed with Marc today that I'm 100% moving in with him from the 1st of May until at least the end of July in Dublin. So I think I'm going to grind 180s on my own dime and get some pretty much variance free dollar. I still have no idea if I will make a run at this bet or not. There's still plenty of time left to catch the guys and $1800 would be pretty sweet. But I really, REALLY need to make up my mind by tomorrow or else leaving it too late. 

Bogan booked an hour for me with Squee. I'm ridic excited for that. I hope he tears me apart, which he probably will. But listening to people like him will only do me wonders. 

Love her. Love the song. Run gootz.

Day 16 & 17 - Decisions...

Didn't have time to update it last night as decided I was getting fucked up :).. Was in a pretty bad way, ringing Gawa and Dan because I got so excited there going to be in Dublin at the end of the month!!... Should be a fun night!.

So after all I've decided I'm not going to go for the 2s bet. At the moment I just don't have it in me to grind every day. I still need to get 1k games in this month to lock up the bet with Marc but that won't be a problem.

I've decided, backed or un-backed. I'm going to get my grind on in the 3rs big time. I think they'll improve my end game even more in Mtts, plus everyone says they are the softest of the 180s. Obviously they suck for RB and hourly, but easy money is easy money.

Cory (ProdigyXII on stars) told me he'd go over some HHs, in exchange for some drinks in Nottingham. He was once regarded as the best 3r player when on the serious grind, so that will be pretty sick. Reason I'll be in Nottingham is I shipped a satty tonight. :D. I felt a little out of my depth when we got to the FT as I have no satty experience. But it was fairly comfortable in the end. Hopefully I will get to girls and some the guys I met over in Bristol. Just need Kev to bink some money so he can play as well, that would be sweet.


I think I played pretty well over all the last few days and had some deep runs, today I think my only deepish run an Mtt was the 11c and Felix (in my old stable) was down to the last 2 tables with. Was one hand, which I thought was lol bad, where he shove 16bb over my utg+1 open with K2 and got there vs my JJ. I would have berated him a little even if I held, as I just didn't get it. He cited 'x' and 'y' why it isn't that bad. And maybe I need to look into my re-shoving range from EP openers. 


I can't post a graph from the last 2 days, because for some reason it's still including the MM cash. I played approx 150 games and broke even apart from the package I shipped. So plus about $1k. I've also decided once and for all I'm too far behind in the 2s bet to win. I'm about $700 behind. I'm not sure if I said this in the last post, hopefully not. But ya, I could possibly push for it. I feel I'm playing well at the moment but just the week off and chilling out in Bristol has took my mind off the grind.

I'm going to talk to Bogan in the morning pre my session and decide what I'm doing once and for good. They signed up my good irl friend Karl (chips1234), so just gotta get Kev and Greg in there and have the irish connection. It's a bit of a disgrace I didn't go out on Paddys Day been Irish and all that, but oh well. Destiny. Let's ship the UKIPT :D