Poker should be honest even if the players ain't

I've been a long time fan of poker starting somewhere at the beginning of this century when we had this ring of Scandinavian Stud (Sökö) players getting together once a month (on payday). It was poker at it's friendliest level. With a random entry fee, everybody was allowed to eat and drink for free, and everything that was leftover was in the pot. Winner takes it all, but the winner had to pay the cab to the first pub and buy around for everyone involved in the game. As you can guess, the winner was the one who lost the least amount of money during the night.

Few years later I got into Texas Hold Em, and afterwards I went on to games like Omaha, Courchevel, Eight-game, Seven-deuce, Crazy Pineapple, Lime and all kinds of variants. My favourite is Dealer's choice, where you basically play the form of poker that the dealer (The player on the button) decides.

Today I was reading Irish Poker Boards, and found a link to David Kilmartin's aka Lappin's latest blog post "Poker players are liars". There he starts with the so called "show one, show all"-rule, which means that if a player shows his/her cards to another player, he/she is bound to show the cards to the all players. This rule is commonly mistaken to mean that if you show one card before mocking, you are required to show the other one as well (assuming you are playing Texas Hold Em, and of course you are, because you don't know any other forms outside 5-card draw poker commonly know as the Strip Poker).

He goes on talking about politics, and the life outside of poker. The main thing I noticed is that, even though poker players might occasionally bluff (100% bluff rate in the long term is de facto impossible), we shouldn't assume anything about poker players outside the set of rules. It is game of misleading, and one of the hardest forms of game theories as everyone has to make their decisions without having all the knowledge.

This takes me to an important lesson I once taught to my girlfriend when she was starting out. She registered to Full Tilt Poker, and started playing sit'n'go's (tournament which starts when a preset amount of players have been registered). Then she moved on to more challenging tournaments. We used to play poker at the same time with our own laptops in the same room. Once we were in the same tournament, and ended up in the same table. She was already saying that we should play against other players.

She was basically suggesting that we collude against other players. Which is basically cheating. She showed her hand (pair of kings), and I instantly turned my screen away from her informing my disgust against cheating, and also saw a change to teach an important lesson.

I was bound to act after her in the table and I had a pair of fives. The flop came with Ace, ten and a five. I made a set, but also the whole flop was coloured with spades. She checked, and I bet 1/3 of the pot. She looked at me, and was like what are you doing? I said that I won't tell you. She was probably afraid of the ace, but she also had the king of spades, which would give her the nut flush (the best possible flush). Turn card was a three (diamonds I think, anyways, not spades). She checked and I bet, and she was like "What am I doing? Do you have the ace?". "Guess?", I asked her. I think she thought I was playing some kind of mind game with her, and she was partially right. River card was the lucky three of spades, completing her flush, and giving me the full house. She checked, and I bet a full pot against her. And she was like "You know my cards, why are you betting?". She pondered for a while and decided to call to see the bad news.

She was pissed off. I did explain to her that she gave me all the information, and she should be lucky that I only bet 1/3 of the pot on the flop. There was a longer tutorial against cheating in poker, and so on, but to my knowledge she has never cheated after that. And she does pretty decent on poker tables.

What was the lesson then? Well, as I see, Poker is a game of luck, deception, and skill. Poker is also a game of rules, and we should feel compelled to them at all times. I like to think poker is a gentleman's game even though it is not represented with such class in TV, and even less in the corner tables of pubs. In the long term, I would like to think, every time somebody cheats in Poker, one to-be poker player gets another reason not to get involved, so in the end, all poker players lose.

After the IPO weekend: trouble with Boylepoker and the final table pronounced

This year IPO missed one decent player, who should have been there playing: me. I had trouble registering to Boylepoker, which is the only way to buy tickets. Hindrances in the development of social security system has also a few drawbacks when it comes to proving your own identity. Although customs in most countries around the world, including Ireland, use passports as main proof of identity, here in Ireland that is just a perk which opens you doors a lot faster. I have opened my account in Boylepoker few months ago and I got my account suspended because I could only produce a copy of my passport, but no proof of address. When I finally got my proof of address delivered to Boylepoker's customer service agents, it didn't do no good. Why, you might wonder. Well, the proof of address I produced is for my current address, but not to the one which I gave when I registered. I had also an understandable excuse for this, for I had moved to a new address and my previous address would have been invalid anyways. But for some reason, this was not good enough for the good lads of Boylepoker.

IPO is probably the Europe's biggest poker tournament with lots of amateurs playing. This year's final table didn't give any surprises. The table is full of amateurs of sorts and no famous poker pros. There aren't any big winners in the final table, but people with lots of experience. Some of the players have been playing poker for ten years with one exception; Colum Horan, an accountant from Dublin, says he has been playing poker for 11 months, not ten or twelve, but eleven months. Maybe the subtle knowing of numbers gives an edge to the newcomer of poker.

10th of November the new champion will be pronounced. Maybe I'll get my identity cleared by the IPO 2013 or else there is going to be a very sad pokerpanda.

Last weekend I mostly played Mass Effect.

Preparing for IPO

It seems Poker is alive and kicking in Ireland with several casinos and pubs arranging games. I've been mostly attending games that are handled by Dublin poker nights. Usually it's on thursday at The Bell. Thursday is a good day to go out, because most people get their weekly paycheck on thursday. Today's event is as followed:

"€110 added and double league points tonight by Dublin poker nights tonight @ The Bell Pub Blanchardstown. 8.30 start €40 freezeout plus €3 per player to €3000 DPN league. Complimentray Hot Food on the break. Cash table later. Dealers we play and deal if we cash it carries over to following week. Text or phone rob 0864046570 to book your seat"

 It seems I have already ranked in Poker night's league as 57th. 24 of the players will qualify for 3000 euro tournament and the winner gets an IPO ticket. I think that is bit faraway to reach, but it would be nice to improve my ranking.

Poker nights also arrange monthly deepstack tournament with East coast pub poker tour, and this month's tournament is set to start at 3 pm in Clarion hotel on saturday. Entry is 80 euroes including 15 euro registration fee. If there is any consistency the tournament will end at about 7 am next morning. So it doesn't just take skills to win, it also takes a stamina, which requires a goodnight sleep and a good breakfast.

There will also be a satellite tournament starting at 9 pm. Winners get tickets to annually IPO-tournament, which is said to be the Europe's biggest poker tournament when counting participants. Previous years attendance has been somewhere around 1500 players. That is the big event, which required me to use two of my holidays. I must post something about that event as it will be my biggest tournament ever.

According to Irish Poker Boards the deepstack event has already 70 pre-registered players. Promoters are expecting 150 players. Last month's attendance was more than 200. 220 if I remember correctly.

"1. Who is running the event. Dublin poker nights and East coast pub poker tour.
2. The purpose of the event. Commercial.
3. Date. 6th of October 2012.
4. Location. The Clarion Hotel, Dublin Airport.
5. Any guaranteed prize pool. €3000.
6. Registration and start time of event. 1.30pm game starts at 3pm.
7. Any prerequisites. None.
8. How can tickets be purched and is there a maxium number. On the Day.
9. Type of Tournament. NLH Freeze-out.
10. Cost of entry. €80.
11. How much of reg fee is made of registration fee. €15.
12. If a rebuy, cost of rebuy/top-up. N/a.
13. How many and what duration are rebuys available. N/a.
14. % of entry fee/rebuys/top-up going into prize fund. 100%.
15. How many places been paid. 10% of the feild.
16. Is any money from the prize pool held back for future tournaments. None.
17. Any tickets for future events given out as prizes. None.
18. Any additional prizes given out. None.
19. Starting chips. 25,000.
20. Re-buy and top up amounts. N/a.
21. Blind Levels.
25-50
50-100
75-150
100-200
150-300
150-300 ante 25
200-400 ante 50
300-600 ante 75
400-800 ante 75
500-1000 ante 100
600-1200 ante 200
800-1600 ante 200
1000-2000 ante 200
1500-3000 ante 300
2000-4000 ante 400
2500-5000 ante 500
3000-6000 ante 1000
4000-8000 ante 1000
5000-10,000 ante 1000
6000-12,000 ante 2000
8000-16,000 ante 2000
10,000-20,000 ante 2000
12,000-24,000 ante 2000
15,000-30,000 ante 3000
20,000-40,000 ante 4000
25,000-50.000 ante 5000

22. Blind time frames. 30 minutes.
23. Are there going to be dealers. Yes high skill.
24. Will there be a documented list of rules. Yes.
25. Is there a tournament director. Yes.
26. How are disputes handled. Tournament director has final say.
27. Are there cash tables on offer. Yes 5% capped at €15."

One Bell for the cards

Unlike in so many other developed countries, Ireland has next to none regulations concerning poker. It's almost a national sport. There are cash games, tournaments and freerolls in every district of Dublin.

I've been now twice in The Bell (Blanchardstown), where they organize a bar tournament of 40+3. First time I came last and the second time third. So there's my baseline so far. I can get through the bubble and I also have the amazing ability to finish just before the second last.

I found the place through Dublin Poker Nights. They seem to be handling a few tournaments on weekly basis. I haven't made sure that the information on the site is valid, but that's on my checklist.

Few reasons not to leave Dublin - or come to Dublin

Totally Dublin (TD) produced 200 reasons for not leaving Dublin. It's mostly written for somebody whose family line might be located close to Dublin for generations (at least one).  The list is not in any fashioned form emphasizing better reasons upon worse.

So here is a short list of reasons put into different categories.

Respect your shoe polisher
The use of chemical substances or the otherwise lacking respect for things considered gratious are treated differently in Dublin than let's say in Buckingham palace.

• "If the Lady Liberty was here, it’d be called The Clown In The Crown."
• Alcoholism. "There’s actually serious social stigma attached to that in other countries"
• Referring to politicians by their first name. Michael D. Higgins is Michael D. 
• Cheeky kids. If a kid tells you, he likes your hair, he thinks your hair looks stupid and you're an idiot. "The city’s children are amongst the world’s most sarcastic." Author of this blog is just being diplomatic.

It's just like everywhere else, but better
It's not like people invented potatoes in Ireland, but they are better here than anywhere else. If you're unsure where potatoes came from, then please visit google maps. It's that big island few thousand miles west of Ireland.

• Burritos are "everywhere, but they’re probably full of fancy stuff and complications. Stick to Boojum, Pablo Picante and Burritos & Blues."
• Vikings. They needed parking space for their boats before going on rampage stealing gold and burning monastries. "That’s way cooler than pilgrims", reasons TD.
• Salted butter. "The disappointing, colourless slop that passes for butter in every other country in the world is a disgrace to bread."
• Low risk of invasion. Basically it's like Switzerland except on an island.
• Pubs that are institutions. "-- each better than any pub in any other country. Science fact." A bit like Tavastia or Juttutupa in Helsinki.
• Poker. Different game and you have to be sober. Otherwise it's the same game.

Actually worth mentioning
This category is probably the most important, if you're really into the distinctive nature of Dublin, otherwise it's just some concepts people are copying around the world.

• Pints of Guinness. I won't copypaste TD's review. I'll just point out that there's a difference.

Richard Evans won the poker title in Dublin

Last week would have been a great chance to enjoy UKIPT in Dublin. Doesn't those letters sound fascinating? Well, they are, if you are into the world of poker. UKIPT stands for UK and Ireland Poker Tour, which is sponsored by Pokerstars, one of the biggest poker tournament promoters and probably the biggest poker site on the internet.

This time the winner was Welshman Richard Evans who was about to drop out of the tournament on the 4th day with no more than 1.2 chips in front of him. You can read about the final table on Pokerstars's blog. If you're unfamiliar with poker, watch this video where Phil Hellmuth (a.k.a. Poker Brat) blows up after losing a hand.



If you missed this bigger event, don't worry. There are lots of poker going on in Ireland as far as I can tell. Even in Dublin there's a poker room practically in every district. Basically you get the idea by opening Google maps and inputing "Dublin" and "Poker".

update: I included Mick McCloskey's Poker In Ireland link in "Useful links in Dublin/Ireland"-tab, where you can locate bigger tournaments played in Ireland.