One of the live tournaments I have been trying to get into is the Ladbrokes Irish Poker Festival. Boasting a €250,000 guaranteed prize pool (last years pool soared to €400,000 with 1st place securing a cool 100k), the event is taking place from 2nd – 4th of October at the best poker venue in Europe, the Irish National Events Centre (INEC) in Killarney, Co Kerry, Ireland. Laddies are offering online players the chance to win a €950 package which includes the €550 buy in to the Main Event with 15,000 starting chips and 1 hour blinds. Also included is a 3 night bed and breakfast stay at the picturesque Gleneagle hotel, situated adjacent to the INEC, with the accommodation suited for two people so you can bring a guest. The festival also includes two side tournaments, and all package winners will have access to Ladbrokes hospitality facilities which includes a games room with pool and darts. Exciting stuff.

So how do you win a package?!?! Ladbrokes state you can win a seat for as little as €3. But the €3 satellite doesn’t offer a seat to the winner – they win a seat to a following satellite, and if you win that satellite.. a seat to another satellite.. whooopeeee!!! Then you are fighting for the package. You can of course buy in to the final satellite, for a €110 fee. I haven’t played any of those satellites, can’t see myself winning 3 in a row.. but I guess you have to be in it to win it as they say! The Ladybrokes freeroll offered a package to the winner however I came 15th out of 400+ players – gutted. Oh well always next year! Although there’s still plenty of time to nab a seat, with the satellites running every Monday – Friday up to the 20th of September. Good luck!

If you haven’t already signed up to Ladbrokes and would like the chance to secure a seat, click here and download the software. With Ladbrokes offering new players a welcome bonus up to $1,000, there has never been a better time to sign up.

Ladbrokes

“Wait a minute, aren’t you going away next Sunday?”

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! As a birthday present, my mum booked me and her a nights stay at Cameron House Hotel. If I had to choose? It would be poker (sorry mum). But think of all the nights we could stay there if I won! ..Just checked the prices, not many, not even a year. I’d spend the money on much more important things anyway.. a girl can never have too many shoes, right?! And a ticket to the World Series of Poker. If I had a list of 100 things to do before I die, participating in the WSOP would be number 1. Imagine arriving at your table only to find that you’re sitting next to the likes of Doyle Brunson. I’d probably get whooped but at least I could say I played with one of the best poker players. Actually, i’d probably be pissed off to have lost 10k to a player that clearly doesn’t need any more money. Honestly, if I won the 150k guarantee i’d probably keep the moolah for the rest of my years at uni and driving lessons. No pressure Neil!

Speaking of the WSOP, i’ve been receiving updates from Ladbrokes about their two sponsored players that are participating in the main event – Jon “Skalie” Kalmer and Nebuchad. Good luck to them both, wonder if Skalie will be able to beat the 5th place he secured back in 2007?

Ladbrokes

Now I know why so many players sit out with a decent chipstack just before the money. Soon after I was hitting a good run of hands such as AK and AQ, every time getting beat by a small pocket pair, bringing me down to 25k. I was then moved to another table and the blinds were at 2k/4k. The blind hit, and I had T6. Rubbish. Had 1 call from another player, and the flop came AA6. Hitting two pair, I bet 4k after being checked and after some time, was called. The turn brought a 10, which gave me a better two pair, and again I bet another 4k. I was then re-raised another 4k and immediately thought this person was slowplaying their trip Aces after being check-raised. I called, and a useless J came down on the river. I was then put all in, and after a considerable amount of time, folded. The player showed K2. AAARGGGHHH!!!! Usually at this stage in a tournament, with the blinds so high, it’s either an all in or fold situation pre-flop, with the occasional rag ace call, and my reasoning told me that this player had a rag ace. Wrong!

This left me with a measly 13k, managed to get myself back up to 20k but was quickly put out after my 6s were beat by Q10. Just as I was reaching the pearly gates of final table poker heaven, my luck was snatched away from me. Poker God hath spoken.

Ladbrokes Poker

Unfortunately, although I was sitting safe throughout most of the tournament, I was knocked out in 22nd place. I was sitting at around 9k when I was dealt AK. The blinds were at 300, I raised to 900 and some guy sitting at the danger level with 4k chips pushed all in with KK. Hate running into those hands with AK, or Anna Kournikova as they like to call it – looks pretty but never wins. I was then left with about 5k and pushed all in after a couple of blinds had swallowed most of my stack with A2, there was only 1 minute left till elimination time so had to make a move quick. And I walked into the big stack with JJ.  It was only a $2 buy in (there’s a couple of higher ones too), with a $232 prize pool that was split equally with the top 10% of players. 12 players ended up getting paid and received around $19 each. I don’t usually like turbos, as I always end up getting muffed or my stack is gobbled up by the blinds, but this is quite a fun wee tournament and only takes around an hour to finish (unlike the high stacks I usually play, which can take up to 5-7 hours to complete).

 
They also hold a 10pm 17.5K guarantee tournament for a $20 buy in – have only played it once and got soooo close to the money. I was sitting with a safe-ish stack of 20k and the blinds had just increased to 1k, when somebody pushed all in two seats to the right of me. I was sitting with QQ. This received a call from the guy sitting next to me, and after a while I decided to call, putting them both on AK. After two all ins and a call, I thought everybody else was bound to fold – but the guy sitting to the left of me, hit his time bank and typed in the chat – “You’ll never guess what I have!” – yeah OK, you have AA, get on with it. The two guys sitting next to me ended up having AK and J10, and surprisingly, the aces held up.

On a good note, I managed to secure 3 final tables over the past week, came third in a $10 1.5k guarantee winning £150, and £70 from the $1 high stacks.

Ladbrokes

By the time it came to heads up I was sitting at 200k, and the chip leader had a healthy 1.2mil. Not a bad tournaround, for a £150 win. Got a uni exam at 2pm tomorrow, glad i decided not to take the night off poker, just hope I have as much luck in my exams as I seem to have in poker.