Dara O’Kearney: Back to the International Poker Open

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Close to my heart

The first entry on my Hendon mob is a win in the first-ever European deepstack back in early 2008. I had been playing less than a year and this was my first big live result. At the time and often since, it was misreported that this was my first ever multi-day tournament. In actual fact, I had already played the first ever International Poker Open (IPO) in 2007, in the Royal Dublin Society. I didn’t last long enough to make any impression.

my ever-sarcastic friend Conal started calling me the king of the Bonnington

In recent years since it moved to the Bonnington, it’s been a happier hunting ground for me. Last year I got 33rd in the Main Event, and I also cashed the previous two years. In 2021, I finished 27th in my first tournament post lockdown. These results when added to cashes inside events and at the Dublin poker festival make me the player who has cashed most in the venue, this meant my ever-sarcastic friend Conal started calling me the king of the Bonnington.

The seniors event

I started my IPO campaign this year the day after flying home from Birmingham after the UK Party Poker Tour stop. My IPO began with the first ever seniors event to take place at the tournament. It attracted good numbers, and I had a very good Day 1, bagging up fifth in chips.

The most interesting hand I played on day one culminated with a river hero call. After a player who was unfamiliar to me, but I had already identified as very competent (this read was confirmed when he went on to win the event), opened in the hijack, I called next to act with pocket sevens. The big blind came along and we saw a flop of:

322r

I called a small cbet from the opener, and then the big blind check raised. The opener folded, and I have a fairly standard call beating some value like a three and all the pocket pairs fours to sixes, as well as all the bluffs. The villain in this case was an aggressive player from Northern Ireland who had shown himself more than capable of bluffing on boards where his opponents were unlikely to have hit.

After a Jack hit the turn my opponent bets again, this time on the small side. When a recreational player bets small on the turn after check raising the flop, it’s often an indicator they are no longer thrilled about their hand, and I couldn’t think of too many hands containing a Jack that would check raise the flop, so I called again.

I kept an eye on my opponent whose body language was stiff and tense

The river was an eight, and my opponent fired again, bigger this time. As I stared at the board trying to work out what he was supposed to have, I kept an eye on my opponent whose body language was stiff and tense. This, combined with the general feeling that he just wasn’t representing much value, led me to make the call. As soon as I called, the white magician himself Andy Black who was also at the table said good call. Andy is far better than I am at reading the physical stuff, and had clearly picked up on the fact that my opponent was bluffing, which he was with pocket fours.

This hand makes perfect sense in retrospect. On the flop, my opponent feels pretty good about his over pair, but once I call and an over card rolls off on the turn, less so. Once I called the turn and he doesn’t improve on the river, he now knows he has the worst hand and he is bluffing.

Day 2

I went into Day 2 of the Seniors with high hopes of at least final tabling, but the day couldn’t really have gone much worse. I failed to win a single hand of note, was dealt out for long periods, and when I tried to compensate with loose opens or three bets, I seem to run into it every time. I ended up going out before the money losing a race against a low pocket pair I was surprised to see raise calling.

The one consolation of this rather premature end to my seniors campaign was that it allowed me to enter the first flight of the Main Event. The field in this was rather tough as it often is in midweek first flights, so I was happy to bag up almost five starting stacks, a little below average but more than acceptable for day two.

The Super High Roller

Bagging up early in the Main Event freed me up to play side events. The most interesting of these was the so-called 1K Super High Roller. As is so often the case with these, it struggled to start on time, as many of the likely entrants were unwilling to enter at the start until they saw how tough or soft the field was. The organisers decided to kickstart the event by offering half rake to people brave enough to register at the start, a great idea which I availed of. In this, I ended up bagging roughly average for Day 2.

honestly one of the best set ups I’ve seen

I played most of Day 2 on the feature table, made possible by the generosity of sponsors WPTGlobal, who paid for the cost of bringing Tower and team across for the event. It’s honestly one of the best set ups I’ve seen. On the feature table, we were able to see a screen that was live (without hole cards, obviously), with up-to-date chip counts. This saved a lot of time, as it removed the need to ask players or dealers for chip counts.

I ended up making the final table, but as the shortest stack and with only five paid, I was far from confident of cashing. I also had a very difficult seat draw with superstar Simon Wilson on my immediate left, Nick Newport to his immediate left, and star pupil Ray Wheatley across the table.

Despite starting with the short stack, I managed to claw my way into the chip lead with seven left.  The stacks however were very compressed, and most players’ fortunes swung back-and-forth, and with six left, on the bubble, I found myself the shortest again, a circumstance my cohost and fellow ambassador David Lappin, now the chipleader, took advantage of with a light raise into my big blind. As I walked away, remembering how annoying bubbling the 1K in Killarney was and hoping I wasn’t going to repeat that experience, Lappin asked where we were going for dinner. I told him testily I had no intention of going to dinner with him, and instead retired to my hotel room with a sandwich to study short stack ICM ranges on final table bubbles.

I ran pretty well after dinner, and ended up finding myself heads up at a huge chip deficit against Joe Mullen. After I clawed it back to almost level wearing special lucky sunglasses Simon Wilson gave me, the dream of winning my second live tournament in a few months was very much alive, but Joe managed to close it out. Primarily a cash game player, he brings an aggressive swashbuckling style to tournaments that makes him difficult to play against.

Main Event Day 2

I started Day 2 on the feature table with Simplify Poker Webmaster Dave Kingston to my immediate right. We both navigated through the bubble safely and ended up busting in the 30s. This was my fifth cash in a row in the event since lockdown. Dave and I joked that we would get a lot of Simplify Poker content from the footage, and we will. He had actually already taken down the first event he played at the IPO, the NLH Bounty event:

Star student Ray Wheatley ended up making Day 3. Ray, regarded by most professional players in Ireland as the best Irish recreational player, had a very good festival overall. He took part in the WPT Global streamed cash game at the start of the festival, and was a winner in the game. He bagged up on one bullet in the Main Event, and was the last golden ticket winner in with a chance of winning a 100K bonus from sponsor WPT Global. Unfortunately, he ran badly on the final table, but it was his second time making the final table in three years.

The Main Event was eventually won by working class Dublin hero Noel Murphy. I had the privilege of commentating on the finish with the Tower, who is the consummate professional. He carried the stream for long periods on his own. Having had to fly solo myself in the past on commentary, I know just how difficult this is. In his post win interview, Noel was very generous to myself and David, talking about how much he has benefited from the strategy segments on the Chip Race podcasts and my books.  I have more to say about Noel, but will save it for another article.

The Leslie McLean High Roller

After busting the Main Event, I late registered the Leslie McLean High Roller. I chopped this event last year three-way with the two Pauls, Carr and Leckey. I had a good first day again, bagging up fifth of 13.

I lost almost half of my stack early when I called a short stack shove. That meant having to grind it out to make the final table and cash. I ultimately bow out in eighth, and my friend June Jenkins went on to claim the trophy to add to the one she won in Killarney a couple of months ago.

I also have more to say about June, but will hold it back for another article. I can reveal however that one of her many quirks is that every time she wins a trophy in Ireland, she seems to give it to me for safekeeping. On this occasion, I actually left the trophy behind, and had to retrieve it a few days later.

Final thoughts

To my mind, this was the best IPO I have attended. As mentioned earlier, the live stream was top class. Cameron, Thomas, and the rest of the WPT Global team in attendance went the extra mile to be helpful and welcoming to players. The dealers and staff were absolutely world class, genuinely the best I have seen anywhere in the world.

Daniela brings a unique calmness, charm, and charisma

Glenn Doyle, the youngest ever TDA approved tournament director, has long impressed me, and I’ve even forgiven him for making me feel very old by telling me he was in school with my daughter Fiona, who isn’t even my oldest child. EPT and Stars tournament director Antonio Pataj is one of the best in the business, and I remember Daniela Bonciu as a dealer and member of reg staff at early EPT’s I attended, before she climbed the ranks to be one of the best EPT tournament directors. Daniela brings a unique calmness, charm, and charisma to the role, which makes her the best I’ve seen at deescalating potentially tense situations and conflicts. We are very lucky on this side of the Atlantic and in Ireland in particular with the quality of tournament staff we get at events.

A final word of thanks to all the players went out of their way to tell myself and David how much they enjoy our content. The IPO was originally launched as the grassroots festival, and has managed to maintain that friendly ethos through all the sponsor changes.

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