PUMPED UP AND RARING TO GO

Its the IPO 2019 review .

Its Swords Poker Damo back again felling inspired to take up the blog again after attending the IPO 2019 poker festival at the Bonnington hotel on the Swords road Dublin over the October bank holiday weekend .

I had the fortune to take down the League final in the Orchard Pub in Swords that happened to include a ticket to the IPO main event as part of 1st place .

I have cut back on a lot of festival and bigger game play due to increased work commitments in the last 12 to 24 months .

I decided to play day 1a on the Thursday , it was the smallest field of  runners 77 . 

I had that buzz again of the big event game and can I get a deep run going.

So I go to take my seat arriving into the second level , table 11 seat 5 and I see on my direct right is former Irish open winner and unibet sponsored pro Ian Simpson .

I was running good but more importantly I was playing really good and I was gaining confidence as the chip stack increased at a steady pace . After a couple of battles with Ian I got the better of him and sent him on his bike .
Then it was onto the second third of the award winning pod cast trio from " the Chip Race ".
Mr David Lappin . David and myself were battling for the  day 1a chip lead heading into the last couple of levels .
After tank calling with bottom pair David Lappins river bet I was feeling good about how I was playing and my decision making was on point I made two errors in the last level that cost me the chip lead , I three bet a raise of 7k to 20k with 88 when the villain shoved all in for an extra 50k .........

David Lappin from the Chip Race

after tanking I made the call hoping to be ahead in a race but he had the bullets AA , I was still nursing a healthy 220k stack when on the button for the last hand of the night I squeeze out the A♦️and with two short stacks in the blinds I bet them all in and the BB calls with AQ , I didn't see the other card .............fuck !!!! its a 4 and I donk off another 60k to finish on 155k . Ah well I am still healthy enough going into day 2 .











Thank you I appreciate the kind comment on the IPO blog Mr Lappin and congrats on your 11th place finish .
While I am on the subject I must complement the coverage from Mr Willie Elliot on his blog and live updates from every minute of every days play in great detail from the photos and videos and the hand commentary's, great job Willie .

Back to business for day 2 , 138 players returned from 755 with 95 people to make it into the money . I made it into the money easily enough there must have been lots of short stacks as it went very quick . I never got the cards on day 2 and blinded down to 110k and with blinds at 6k 12k & 12k bb ante the cut off raises me on the button to 30k I have AxKx I move all in and he calls off 3/4 of his stack with Ax7x  !!!!WTF  of course you know the story before I tell you ..... a bleedin 7 on the river of course . " Sorry Bud " ....... " that's poker pal " best of luck , as I am screaming inside " you fucking DONKEY , ACE SEVEN me bollocks .
I'm out in 79th place for a min cash , I'm sick but loved every minute .
I hit the hat trick meeting the final member of the Chip Race Dara O' Kearney for a chat about the pod cast and got a big boost when he asked " are you Swords poker Damo ? didn't you do a blog yourself ? I use to maybe I'll bring it back ????? lol .
Watch this space and the best player in Swords might just bring out his ego to spin it up in the Orchard Pub in Applewood Swords every Monday night at 8:00pm .
Come along " IF YOU THINK YOUR GOOD ENOUGH "

OMG !! How do you make that call ???

Well it was week 5 of the Orchards Poker League and there was a good 19 players playing for the double points night .
There were some new players new to the game one of which had all his dreams come true by knocking out the best player in Swords .
Well played Sir !!! Nice hand Sir !!!!  How you got a read on me after 5 limpers ( includeing yourself ) with the blinds at 1000 / 2000 I'm in the BB and see the beautiful A❤️ I ship in the 40k I had and my new friend snap called the 40k .
Oh Shit I say after looking at the other card I have A 4 🤪 Then he shows A 7 😱😱😱 OMG HOW DID YOU CALL THAT OFF !!!!!
So I flop a flush draw and a straight draw with a 2 ❤️3❤️J❤️ the turn and river are blanks and the Fucking 7 plays .


Anyway well done to Paul and Thomas who chopped the pot for 1st & 2nd .

Paul & Thomas

Sit N Go Joe

I suppose I have to mention my buddy " Sit N Go Joe " who busted his cherry by cashing in 3rd for his first cash 💰 in this League , actually thats the first cash since !!! MMmmmmmm since ?????? Fuck I cant remember the last time 😂😂😂 

Anyway Joe the offer still stands if you want to buy out of that side bet we have of who will be best in the League.

The Hand of the night

Take a bow Deco Boylan our favourite landlord and host of the Orchard Pub made one of the best calls I have seen in a long time v Larry Santo who on his night off from hosting some of the biggest Poker tournements in Europe and running our favourite casino in Swords the fabulous" 4kings "( If you like the plug Larry feel free to offer any free tickets for a regular plug 😜 )

Anyway on to the hand , Larry opens for a raise and Deco calls for 15 euro , Diana deals the flop of 6♣️7♣️10♠️ Larry C bets for 20 Deco calls the 20 , the turn is 9♠️ to brin a very straighty and flushy board , its a check from Larry and a check from Deco the river brings a 4♦️ and Larry ships it ALL IN ........... Deco tanks for a while .............. " I think I have you Larry " Deco says .

Has he the 8 ??? has Larry the 8 ???

Deco calls and Larry says good call he was on the Bluff putting the pressure on Deco but Deco has the goods of course .................... Then Deco turns over .................... 2♠️2❤️ WTF !!!!! What a call .

2 2 quack quack 🦆🦆 and its good

Larry Santo

Deco Boylan

He Talks the Talk , But can he Walk the Walk !!!!!!

You better belive he can , Damo ( The best playerin Swords ) is crushing the Orchard Pub poker leauge . We are in week 4 of the 10 week leauge and Damo's results are week 1 1st , week 2 1st ,week 3 3rd and week 4 joint 1st in a 3way chop. Congrats to Eddie and Pat on the chop 👍🏻

SwordsPokerDamo AKA " The Best Player inSwords "

The hand of the night is from the first level with the blinds at 25 / 50 I have Q♠️J♠️ in the big blind .

We have the normal 6 limpers in the pot so I decide to thin out the field with this very pretty hand.

I raise it to 600 , a 12x raise and I get 4 callers 😱 .

The flop is K♣️4♣️10♦️ , I flop an open ender so I'm happy to c bet to 1600 and I get 1 caller  , my nemesis " Sit N Go " Joe .

Boom 💣 !!!! I turn the nuts , A❤️ and I'm thinking is Joe chasing a flush ????

So I bet big 4600 a near pot size bet to chase him away , but it doesnt work Joe calls , so now I'm thinking Joe has a big hand so I want a blank on the river please dealer .

The dealer obliges with an 8♥️ and I think Joe has at least 2 pair and I belive he will call so again I bet a pot size bet of 10,000 and Joe calls ??? he has pocket Kings 😱😱😱 the trapper got trapped .

Joe should change the name to " Slow Play Joe ".

That was a nice big pair Joe

Its very fustrating in the Orchard that again we have a good pool of players with 2 tables of 15 players and again there are some faces that show up the odd time and I'm sure one of these nights all the regs will show up and it will be a full house of 3 to 4 tables .

Its early days back with the blog so leave a comment below if you have any comments or ideas I can use .

I hope to do some player profiles and interdouce to you some of of the characters that play in the game.

Time to bring back the Blog !!!!!!

Ok Guys guess whos back ??? Yes Damos back .
Well I never went away lol , I dropped the blog when the Poker night in the Manor Inn finished up and I switched from running games to just playing and educating some of the local fishies in the Orchard Pubs Monday night game .
Monday night Poker in the Orchard is very well run by Robert Mate and Paul Clemenson .

   I

There is a new league kicked off in the Orchard and we are into week 3 and of course the  " Best Player in Swords " ( yes that is still SwordsPoker Damo ) is smashing it with a 1st in week 1 , a 1st in week 2 and a 3rd in week 3 to top the league. 

So watch this space and and look out for some more bad beats and best hands and the general mad plays that pub poker at its best trows up .

Come along and meet our players and join in the fun and fustrations that the best of grass roots Poker has to offer.

Oh remember everyone is welcome at the Orchard pub , Applewood in Swords every Monday at 8pm . 

I'll see you at the table 

♥️♣️Swords Poker Damo ♦️♠️( AKA The Best Player in Swords )

Vegas Here we come

Were back , the Manor Inn is under new management and we are launching a new league for the Poker Night on every Thursday at 8:30pm sharp. We are going to play a new freeze out game that will be 30 euro for 10,000 chips but you can boost your stack with a 2,000 early bird if you are in your seat for the first hand.
If you cant make the first hand due to running late we will give you a 1,000 bonus chip if you register by text or phone.
There will be full stack reentry up to the break also 30 euro.

We hope to offer trips to Vegas as part of the prise for the league.
We also hope to run a club for anyone that would like to join us on a trip to Vegas , so if your interested let myself or Kevin know.

This is Bobby's Room in the Bellagio

 I had the pleasure of having my first trip to Las Vegas in April and it lived up to all that I expected and more . the good wife and myself had a ball.
I went to see the famous Bobby's Room in the Bellagio hotel poker room , there wasn't much going on but I did see Scott Seciver in there hanging out and the I had to play in the Bellagio 1-3 cash game just to say I played in there and i went on to record my worst loss in Vegas , so I wont be back there , full of Donkeys. (Me being the biggest one ).

get out of jail chips

 I got out of jail with a nice win on the last night in Planet Hollywood where the game was much more fun with plenty of banter and the odd beer or two.




Antonio Esfandiari came out to meet the best player in Swords and we exchanged the odd strategy so watch out for some funky moves at the tables.

Planet Hollywood Pleasure pit

OK so the Blog will be back with all of the news the results the bad beats the good plays and the donkey plays the league standings so please get involved and comment even better come along to the Manor Inn Swords every Thursday for cards in the air at 8:30pm sharp.
Everyone is welcome its a great time to get involved at the start of the league and you never know you could be on the way to Las Vegas on us.

Police Vegas style

It's IPO time again

I'm playing the IPO in the Regency Hotel this week and I'm really looking forward to it. I had a nice deep run in the Summer Deepstack but the IPO is a different story with up to 1000 players.
The IPO is great , it gives the pub player that chance to play a big tournament for a buy in of €230 .

The game in the Manor Inn is going well and the dealers are a great improvement and the no limit cash game is played in great sprit and the rake of 5% capped at €5 is the best around . It's a bit disappointing that the numbers have not improved to what I would like but we will keep plugging away.
One reason the numbers are not growing is the amount of poker that can be played in the Swords area , there is poker in the Orchard bluff card club the penthouse casino and in the Westbury in Malahide, the great thing is that there is a wide choice for the players in Swords.

Now onto the Poker and the standard of play !!! OMG & LMFAO ( as my 13 year old says)
I'm so good I can get players to put there chips in the middle & calling me down with NOTHING!!.
Two recent hands come to mind , I was in the big blind of 400 when I call a min raise from the hijack , knowing this guy like his Ace with anything that's what I put him on so when the flop is 10 2 6 rainbow I'm holding 8♦️ 10♦️ I feel I'm way ahead of his range.
He bets out 1000 and I re-raise  to 3000 he calls the turn brings the Ace he checks I check the river brings another A he checks and I turn over my hand and he turns over A 7 os and asks why I didn't bet after the re-raise that he thought he would trap me??? He couldn't understand why I got thick asking how he could call the re-raise after the flop with nothing and the gets lucky and thinks he made a great play on the flop !!!
The best is still to come, after dumping a couple of premium hands after the flop I decided to punish the limpers with the blinds at 100/200 and 5 limpers I have A♥️9♥️ In the big blind so I raise to 1000 to take the blinds with what I feel is the best hand out there  but I get two callers the flop is 9♣️5♣️7♦️ The small blind leads out 2000 so I think he has a flush draw or he hit top pair and he has me on a big Ace so I decide the worst case is he has a draw so I shove all in ( not the best play but I feel I'm ahead) to put maximum pressure to call all his chips on a flush draw, he thinks a little and the says to the dealer " call give me a 6 " HE HAS 8♥️4♣️ , OMG!!! He doesn't get his 6 no, he hits ♣️♣️ For a flush 🙀 . That's the worst call I have ever seen in all the years I have played poker.
"But all you had was a 9 he says ! " but you called 90% of you stack with a 8 high gut shot DONKEY. Forgetting he called the original 1000 raise with his 8 4 os, another DONKEY play gets rewarded . Ok rant over I'm off to the Orchard tonight to win the cash to pay for my IPO ticket and hopefully we will see a few more players in the Manor inn on Wednesday.

The Summer turns good

Poker this summer hasn't been great for me , it's been a bit of a flatline but things can change so quick in this sick game that we all hate and love at the same time .
The last week has turned it all around , the first game back in the Manor Inn since it reopened was a great night .
The new Dealers were a great hit and the €1/€1 no limit cash game went down very well and was great fun.
The structure of the game was perfect for a pub game and the result was even better , YES the best player in Swords took it down (that's me ).
Karl O Shea had a great run after the break after busting in the first half he played very well to make the final table and got lucky when he needed to , when three handed Karl was all in v Jana his 10 10 v QQ of Jana.
The flop brought a 10 to double up Karl and cripple Jana who went out to Karl soon after.
Golly on the other hand ha a big stack on the final table but went out in two quick hands, first he pushed all in with a big Ace and got a donkey call from*#@&$ with J 9 , he hits his A but the board runs out with 4 spades for our friend to hit the flush with his 9. (ouch).
The hes all in and amo calls with AQ v is 9 10 ,the flop gives Golly his 10 to take the lead , but no not again its runner runner club club and Damo has the nut flush. Its a cruel game.
Karl was a  big chip leader going into heads up against Damo there was no talk of a deal. Damo went on the attack and had just taken a slight chip lead when Karl called Damo's all in with A 5 v K 10 of Karl , an Ace on the turn and its all over.

Karl O Shea 2nd

Jana in 3rd place

On Saturday there was a great show from the Swords faithful in the Carlton hotel for The Summer Deepstack  run by Larry Santos. There was a great turnout of 231 entries creating a prise pool of €23,000 with 25 making it into the money.

9c2c Suited me B*l****x

Mark " Gibbo " Gibson just about getting in there in 25th and Damo " The Best Player in Swords " aka Damien Mc Dermott ( that's me ) making the Final table finishing in 7th place.
I was disappointed how the final table played out as I was hit by a cold deck with the blinds growing.
When I did get it all in against the chip leaders opening raise he was priced in to call with any two cards , so when he said " sorry about this " I asked " you have Aces ? " he turns over 9c 2c , and you know when you feel it in the pit of your stomach " oh oh please NO " .
The flop 10 2 2  xx on the board and I'm out.
Looking back I had a great time , I played really well making good decisions all day and met some great people.

So the last couple of results have turned around the summer for myself turning August what was going to be the first month of the year at a lost into another winning month.
Don't forget be in the Manor Inn on Wednesday for the first hand bonus at 8:00pm for the €25 game with 1 rebuy or top up for €25.
There are lots of people looking at the blog but there are not many comments , let me know what you think good and bad all suggestions are welcomed.
If your playing this Wednesday put up a comment and ill give you a 500 chip bonus.