For this year’s Graders, the Irish Open had been that bright star, the one that guided them through the gruelling six-week process and kept them strong when times got tough. For some, the chance to play the 2010 Irish Open - for most, their biggest tournament to date - was an opportunity that simply couldn’t be missed.
With Black Belt Poker adding another package to the prize pool, four Graders earned their shot at the title, with Simon Mairs, Owen Robinson, Rob Jarrett-Smith and Gavin Hall all invited to join Senseis Channing and Persaud in Dublin. In the interest of fairness, players were offered the chance to take Belt Points (totalling 100,000) instead, and although three of the newly crowned Blue Belts were already looking at flight details, Gavin decided to stay put in order to give himself a better chance of maintaining his Belt during the months of April and May. Thus, the Dublin 4 became the Dublin 3.
Incredibly, and despite the 708 thick field being crammed into one starting day (a tradition, it seems, at the Irish Open), the Dublin 3 were located within a table of each other with just one player separating Rob and Simon. The good news, however, was that there didn’t seem to be any danger men or ‘known pros’ in the vicinity, allowing the Dublin 3 to potentially feed off the locals unhindered.
Sadly, it didn’t quite work out that way for Simon Mairs who became our first casualty a few hours in. Down to 6,500 from a starting stack of 10,000, Simon faced a raise of 350 which he duly reraised to 1,100 with A-K suited. His opponent then pushed all in, and given that Simon had three-bet him a couple of times prior, he made the call, thinking his foe may be making the move with a more narrow range than usual. Unfortunately on this occasion, Simon found himself up against K-K, and then the rail.
Next to drop was Owen Robinson. Comforted by his girlfriend on the sidelines, Owen told of his fall from grace: “I only had 3,000 at the time,” he reported, “so when there was an open to 700, I came over the top with T-9. He made the call with K-J, and although I flopped an open-ended straight draw, I didn’t hit and that was that.”
By default, this therefore meant that Rob was the Black Belt Poker sole survivor. Unfortunately for him, we’re unable to match the $100,000 offered by Paddy Power, but a rivered boat an hour or two later certainly sufficed. Having juggled a circa 15-18,000 stack for the majority of the day, Rob finally doubled up when he flopped a set of threes on a 3-J-T board. It wasn’t easy, though, as his opponent made a straight on the turn with Q-9, and with the chips flying in, Rob was willing the board to pair, which indeed it did when a knave made the save on the river.
Whilst Rob managed to sneak his way into Day Two, he wasn’t alone, as Neil and Nik also came along for the ride. Whilst Nik enjoyed a good early start that quickly lost pace, Neil went for a more trudge-like approach, his stack rarely peaking over that 20,000 mark. Seated next to Jeff Kimber, and later Liam Flood, the table banter may have surpassed the hands, as he was rarely in danger of exiting the tournament, but similarly never threatening the chip lead.
As well as former Graders Toby Lewis, Sida Yuen, Jamie Roberts and Jerome Bradpiece (the latter of whom exited with 2-2 versus 8-8 after a highly frustrating and fruitless day), James Mitchell was also in the field, and perhaps endured the most turbulent day of anyone. Bluffing his way up to 40,000, Mitchell then hit a few hurdles and dropped down to around 15,000, before finding his tournament life hanging by a thread with Qd-Ts versus Kd-Kh. However, after a 9c-As-8c-Tc board, a lady in red arrived in the river to save Mitchell and rekindle memories of Chris De Burgh’s snap-fold chart-topper.
At 708 runners, the 2010 Irish Open equalled previous records, and proved yet again that it is the tournament that players circle in the calendar with a permanent marker. But, unlike other big buy-in tournament, the starting stack remains at 10,000, which may have accounted for two thirds of the field departing within just eight levels. Thankfully, Black Belt Poker still had representatives flying the flag come the end-of-day whistle, including Dublin 3 member Rob Jarrett-Smith, and, of course, former Champ Neil Channing who will be mustard keen to echo his 2008 success. Gosh, we’d never hear the end of it in BBP HQ, but at least I might get a pay rise. Good luck, tomorrow, gang. Bring it home.
NB: Chip counts yet to be received.
No comments:
Post a Comment