You’ve spent nearly $2,000 on flights and accommodation. You’ve planned this trip for months, ramped up the study grind, put together a five-figure package, and worked hard soliciting action from your inner circle.
But then, you get there, and you’re not in the right headspace.
That’s exactly what happened to me at the Irish Poker Open. It had been, unusually, about two months since I played a major tour stop and I was dying to get back in action. I was set to max-fire just about everything $3,000 and under and Dublin was supposed to get me in gear for seven weeks at the WSOP this summer.
But then, I was forced to pivot. I don’t know if it was the gloomy weather I had experienced in England for the last few weeks, but I arrived in Ireland feeling quite lethargic and somewhat under the weather. I also had an incident in the family and work weighing heavily on my mind. In short, it was not how I wanted to feel ahead of eight days of non-stop grinding.
Thankfully I have the benefit of experience. After a few instances of this happening throughout my career, I came to the decision that I wasn’t going to play any serious poker unless I really felt up for it that day.
Poker is a game that requires substantial mental strength. You’d better bring your A-game to each and every tournament you play. If you can’t bring your best stuff, you don’t have an unlimited bankroll, and you don’t feel like you can win, you shouldn’t play.
Getting over your ego and having this sort of mental fortitude is something that has to be learned over time. It’s not playing scared poker, it’s playing smart poker and being smart with your bankroll as a whole.
I burnt myself out early in my poker career trying to study and play online 80 hours a week. I also burnt myself out by playing everything in a series just because I had bought a flight and a hotel. If your head isn’t in the game, your win-rate will absolutely plummet.
On top of that, as a professional poker player, you have a responsibility to your backers to play your very best with their money. Anything less than that is simply unprofessional.
So I decided to make the most of it and focus on having a good time. Thankfully, some of my best friends in the poker world were all in the building. Even a lot of my fellow Americans that felt that the massive €2.5 million guaranteed main event was worth flying across the pond for. They kept my morale building throughout the week and it brought me a great deal of pleasure to just hang out and sweat them.
One of them, Terrance ‘TJ’ Reid , ended up making a deep run in the main event and finished 11th for €36,700. Another friend, Dan Jackson, shipped the €350 6-Max for €44,600. Others max-fired and completely bricked everything (sorry Archie), but we made up for it with plenty of pints and laughs.
I travel to a lot of poker events with my girlfriend now, who is a damn good player herself, albeit with a smaller bankroll. She’s just starting to grind big series for the first time and isn’t regularly playing main events yet. However, after she came up short in a number of satellites, about 10 of us came together to stake her into the main event.
She couldn’t have been happier. It was just one of a number of beautiful moments I was able to experience, and truly what poker is all about.
While the weather was generally pretty terrible, there were a number of things that made the event stand out from many others I’ve played in my life. Food and beverage stalls were everywhere and the Craic Den provided entertainment just about 24 hours a day. Not only that, the streets were flooded with coffee shops, restaurants, and quick healthy eats. It’s a fantastic stop.
From a poker standpoint, there were a ton of fun tournaments to play at the €250 – €350 level that I’d love to see at more stops, such as a €350 heads-up championship, a €350 Chinese poker tournament, along with a ton of well-run mixed games like 2-7 triple draw, an 8-Game, and H.O.R.S.E.
The series also featured a juicy €250 mini main that only bagged 5% and ran every day (sometimes with multiple flights). This event brought in an incredible 6,411 entries over 13 starting flights to accumulate a massive €1.3 million prize pool, with the champion awarded an eye-watering €116,000 after a three-way chop (pg. XX).
All these tournaments were nice to dabble in even when I wasn’t at my best, as the vibes at the tables were simply immaculate. It was fantastic to be able to jump into these games without having to get into my best mental space. I managed to cash the mini for €670, finishing five away from a vital day 2 bag.
I did manage to get my wits together and play some meaningful poker by the end of the week, jumping into the €350 PLO and making a nice day 2 run, finishing 21st from a 317-entry field for a modest €950 cash. I also fired the €550 JP Masters and the €1,150 8-max, to no avail.
Of course, I had to play the main event and had a very interesting run. After an early hit, I managed to turn my 50,000 starting stack into 130,000 heading into the final level of the night. With about 20 minutes left in the day, I heroed it off wrong and was down to less than 5,000 chips. Somehow, I managed to quadruple, get a shove through, double, and dodge the blinds at the end of the night to bag my original starting stack, or 12 big blinds for day 2.
The next day, I cockroached for a few hours, getting into a vicious cycle of winning a small pot, then having to open and fold to a three-bet in the same orbit. I was able to suck out with a suited ace against pocket kings and we were in there with a chance about 125 players from the money.
I shoved my last seven or eight big blinds with Ah 7h and ran into pocket kings. While I flopped a flush draw and was 47% to win, according to the Card Player Poker Odds Calculator, I couldn’t get there. My girlfriend had busted about five minutes earlier, and we went off to get some much-deserved pints.
On the final day, a group of us friends ended up booking a private cash game table to play the splashiest €1-€2 game until they kicked us out at 6 am. It was a night full of laughter, full of drinks, and something that we hope to make a tradition. It also didn’t hurt to win more in that game than I did in the rest of the series.
While I ended the trip down a couple thousand euros, cashing two out of my 11 bullets, I would have almost certainly guaranteed a five-figure loss and had a much worse time if I tried to fight through the fog. From a fun perspective, I truly maximized my EV.
Blaise Bourgeois a WSOP Circuit ring winner, poker journalist, and contributing columnist for Card Player. Find him on Twitter/X @BlaiseBourgeois.