Dara O’Kearney (right) was shut out at the IPT Killarney Poker Festival, but as always, had a blast. [Image: Facebook / Irish Poker Tour & Championship]

Memories of Killarney

Since the start of my poker career, I’ve been attending the Killarney Poker Festival, and making memories. Some highlights include traveling southwest to play my first one the day after I’d made my TV poker debut (losing heads-up to a boxer who apparently didn’t know the hand rankings and definitely didn’t know what a straight was!). In 2010, I again lost heads-up in the final of a heads-up event at the Lakes of Killarney.

realized the reason for this wasn’t raw inexperience but that I was looking at the online beast “Shinerr”

I also remember watching a young local dominate the Main Event final table, much to the bemusement of local railbirds who told me they’d never seen him in the local poker club (or anywhere else). After watching him for a while and learning his name was Cathal Shine, I quickly realized the reason for this wasn’t raw inexperience but that I was looking at online beast “Shinerr,” who until then was an anonymous Irish online crusher shrouded in mystery.

Two-tabling live…sort of

Six years later, I had probably my most memorable day ever in poker in Killarney. The Sunday before traveling down, I had played an online Day 1 for the Grand Prix. It only got 19 runners, but I got all the chips, qualifying for the live final day on the last day of the festival, assuming I’d be free. In fact, I ended up on the final table of the WPT National. The organizers (Party Poker Live) wouldn’t allow me to multi-table, so I could only play the Grand Prix on breaks from the WPT. This and the fast nature of the Grand Prix presented a unique challenge: I knew I had to double up in the next twenty minutes every time I came to the table, otherwise I’d be blinded out by the next break in the WPT.

What’s the best way to double your stack in twenty minutes when everyone is playing cautiously?

I got to the table on my first break from the WPT to find I’d already lost half my stack to blinds and antes. What’s the best way to double your stack in twenty minutes when everyone is playing cautiously? I could open-shove every hand, but even if they all folded every time, that wouldn’t get me there. And obviously if I got called, I’d almost always be in wretched shape. So, I decided to just play a lot of hands, keeping the pots small, and try to win a big one post-flop.

With just over 2 minutes left on my WPT break, I had nudged my way back toward my starting stack, but I knew that still wasn’t enough. It was touch and go as to whether it was worth sticking around to play another hand and risk missing one in the WPT, particularly since I was UTG, but I decided to stick around.

I also decided to split my range between raises (anything reasonable) and limps (everything else). Folding wasn’t an option. As it happens, I pick up Tens and raise. I watch in horror as everyone folds to the blinds, and now I’m sorry I didn’t limp.

Thankfully both blinds call. The flop comes T-7-6 and they both check. Top set, but how to get paid? Check. Turn is a 3, small blind checks, big blind bets, I call, small blind calls. River is a 3 and the small blind unexpectedly leads. Big blind calls, I shove, small blind tank calls. I can’t stack the chips fast enough to race back to the WPT.

Quick, before I get blinded off

Back at the WPT final table, I make a close call I wouldn’t have made if I didn’t have a stack of almost a million in the GPPT (about 5k in equity now) blinding off at the rate of roughly 25 euro a minute in equity. Larry Ryan had just been crippled, when I open A-Q, get shoved on by the second shortest stack, and after running the mental math, I decide I’m not quite getting the right price to call (his range has to be much tighter than normal with Larry so short) but it’s close enough that when I factor in my equity in the GPPT, I think it becomes a call. He has a monster, as expected, but I get there against his Kings. Doubly unlucky on my opponent not just to get sucked out on, but I also wouldn’t have made the call if I wasn’t still in the GPPT.

I get back to that stack to find I’ve blinded off slightly more than the half a million I estimated. Once again, I’m in a spot where I have to gamble or face the prospect of blinding out when I disappear back to the WPT final table. I get there just in time to defend my big blind. I make a loose and normally bad call with 4-4 versus an UTG open, not so much set mining as set gambling. I am rewarded with a Q-T-4 flop. After check-calling the flop, my opponent decides to protect his overpair on the turn by shoving and I double. I win a few other small pots to nudge my stack up past the million mark before I have to go back to the WPT.

I bust that in fourth re-shoving K-Q over a button raise and not getting there against A-K. No time to feel sorry for myself, straight back to the GPPT to find I’ve blinded off another half a million or so. At that stage there were still about a hundred left, but I navigated my way to the final table, and heads-up, ultimately falling short in second place.

Deja vu

In 2018, I got heads-up in the High Roller with a distinct sense of deja vu as my opponent was Upeshka Da Silva, who had beaten me heads-up for a WSOP bracelet in Vegas three years earlier. That sense of deja vu was reinforced when I got it in ahead, but didn’t hold. Last year, I went to Killarney a little low on morale after one of my less successful years in live poker, so I was pleasantly surprised to make the final table of the Main Event. That run kickstarted a change of my live fortunes.

I bricked the entire festival, soft bubbling almost everything I played

This year I traveled down with my friend and student Ray Wheatley. I was optimistic that I could continue one of my better years on the live front, but purely based on results, that optimism was misplaced. I bricked the entire festival, soft bubbling almost everything I played, including the Main Event and the High Roller.

I did at least have the considerable consolation that several of my students and ex-students notched big scores; too many to shout them all out, but I will mention a few. My travel companion Ray won (or technically chopped heads-up) the 1k High Roller (Ray has now chopped his last three 1k’s!), and got 5th and 17th in two of the side events. In the one in which he was 6th, another student, Shane Kelly, took it down. On the same night, Sam Dobbins won the $300 buy-in side event for his biggest-ever live score, €16,000 ($17,511).

Keith Cummins returned from semi-retirement to claim 7th in the Main Event, an event Marc McDonnell and Paddy Power Twitch streamer Conor O’Driscoll chopped heads-up after the elimination of IPT team pro Darren Harbinson (who also beat his previous highest score). One of Ireland’s all-time greats, Marc took the lion’s share of the money along with the trophy. Emmett Mullinn claimed a win in another side event. That final table also featured TV chef Kwanghi Chan, who took 7th. Kwanghi went five spots better when he came 2nd in the Killarney Poker Cup for €11,000 ($12,039). Colette Murphy also had a great festival, taking down a side event and taking 3rd in another.

Yet another great IPT stop

Despite bricking everything, I had a great time in Killarney, even getting out for a couple of runs around the beautiful nearby National Park. The morning after he won the High Roller, I went for a walk there with Ray when we ran into Michael Dwyer. Or to be more accurate, he ran by us on his morning run and showed us what he was watching and listening to: the recently released Tournament Poker Study Simplified that Barry Carter and I had just released. The festival coincided with the launch of www.simplifypoker.com, the new website from Barry and me. Big thank you to everyone who wished me luck with it in person.

Finally, a shout-out to Tanya Masters. Since she was appointed IPT Ladies Ambassador, ladies events at these Irish Poker Tour stops have gone from strength to strength. The ladies event at the festival attracted a record 66 runners and was taken down by Jenny Steele. Jenny defeated Rachel Samuels heads-up in what was a great festival for the Samuels family: Rachel’s Dad, Fitzwilliam Card Club legend Stuey Samuels, was 5th in the Main Event. Stuey was already King of the Fitz when I played my first ever live tournament 17 years ago (on my first night, I lost heads-up to the previously mentioned Colette Murphy!). Stuey took down more tournaments in the Fitz (and possibly in Ireland) than any other player, and his €20,500 ($22,436) payday for fifth was his highest-ever score.

Next up for the IPT is Clonmel, then all eyes turn to the Irish Poker Festival at the Intercontinental in Dublin. That Main Event will represent the biggest buy-in Main Event this year in Ireland, and already such international luminaries as Michel Molenaar (and his beautiful girlfriend Cassandra Yong) and Niall “Firaldo” Farrell are confirmed for the event.