IPO and leprechauns

I meant to write about this last time but it slipped my mind. The international poker open was in it's 2nd year and once again it broke it's own record for most participants in a live tournament outside the USA. I was doing he floor for the tournament last year and it in term of organisation there was an huge improvement over last year. I'd say 90% of the floor staff did the Irish open this year, dealers in general were much better trained bar 1 or 2 exceptions and in general they clearly learned a lot from their mistakes so credit goes to Stephen, Jeff and Boyles for really putting the event on the map.

I have to say I am really impressed with Boyles and with what they have been doing since the poker room got new management in. If I wasn't such a rb whore I would probably give them a go as their customer service is pretty outstanding but big companies who get their numbers from huge marketing are never going to offer the best deals, it will be the smaller rooms whose only way to attract people is to offer better deals. I suppose if their was a wave of sites going down like what happened in the banking industry then I would go with them as you would know your money is safe. I am always wary of that possibility and tbh putting your money in most sites is a gamble as there is no real way of getting your money back. Costa Rica, Antuiga etc don't tend to enforce the law that forcefully.

Anyway I digressed. This year I played the IPO. I ended up coming around 160th give or take 1 or 2 places. I got to the 2nd and final day on Sunday but lasted 10 minutes. The killer hand was very first hand of the day with blinds at 2500/5000 when guy raises to 15k (the fact he didn't push maybe should have sent alarm bells in my head) I found AQs on the button and shoved, he had Aces and that was it. I still had 9k but lasted 4 more hands. Overall looking back I don't think I played too bad, no major mistakes but I think I played too tight. I still have this weird issue of being aggressive live, I tend to find it harder mainly as they call so much but there was definitely spots where late on Friday I could have shoved my stack in and picked up the blinds. It's definitely something I need to work on for when I start playing bigger live tournament.

On that point, for the last few weeks I have been playing on leprechaun poker. They have been advertising on boards the last while and specifically an pretty incredible deal where if you play and make 100k VIP points you get to choose a ticket to any live event of your choice in 2009. The thread is here
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055360443

Now on the face of it, it's a hell of an offer but I had problems with it, mainly it's almost too good an offer. From the figures I have worked out, it seemed that at best they were going to be break even on the deal and more likely going to lose money on each person who gets it. This is on the assumption that everyone chooses to play the Irish Open and doing anything else would be absolutely crazy, biggest buyin, most prestigious tournament and the best value tournament with all the Paddy power sats and live satellites held around the country, the standard is questionable to say the least.

After mulling it over, chatting with others I decided it was worth the risk of going with it. As of now I have 81,158 VIP points so I am 4/5ths of the way there. I aim to have it complete by my graduation on the 10th of this month. In terms of acquiring the points it has been pretty simple and that bit was never in doubt although I have gone through it even quicker then I anticipated. It's still a risk though. I am not 100% certain they will pay out on it although I think there is very good chance they will judging by how they have been replying. I think they hope to make back money by getting people to try to go for the deal but ultimately failing to reach the magic number and also for people who qualify hope at least 1 of them goes deep and gets their logo on tv.

Either way it should mean I will be playing the Irish Open in 2009 which will be great. I always has 09 as the year I would start to play big live tournaments. If I do play it then I shall be aiming to get some more live experience beforehand in the weekly donkaments in the Jackpot, Fitz etc to try to make myself feel as comfortable as possible and then hopefully take down the big score in April!