Well, back after another stonking APAT in Dublin. I wasn't feeling too good in the run up, and to be honest I wasn't feeling great when I got there. However there is nothing like good company and a few pints to lift the spirits. Carl, myself & the wee man had a setback when our boat was cancelled but we were spliced onto the next one no bother and although we didn't meet at the terminal I knew that Paulie and Paul Mc were on the Stenna boat that left 20 minutes before ours.
We steamed off and it was a good crossing on account that it's a huge ship and as we approached Dublin we saw the Stenna boat ahead of us. It then copped a swerve to the right and slowed down. WTF we overtook it and proceeded towards our berth and looking back the Stenna boat was going round in fecking circles in the bay. Our travel guru was a wee bit snookered for some reason.
That reason became apparent when we saw that the Stenna berth was still occupied by the previous sailing. It transpired that someone had a heart attack on the boat and the Guards were called when the patient unfortunately died. It meant the boys were going round in circles for another three hours.
When we hit Dublin we grabbed a taxi and because some eejit from Canada was playing at the Aviva (Michael Bubble or something) it took us nearly 40 minutes to get to the hotel. Dropped the bags and met up with Dan & Dan who had arrived shortly before us and had a wee drink. Then we made the pilgrimage to Larry Murphy's to meet up with the other Friday guys. Had a good night, nothing huge but I managed to keep down the Guinness. Paul Mc is not the man to say that he has to drop his trousers in a public house, trust me.
Saturday dawned and after watching the two Dan's have a hearty breakfast (I had a pint) we took up station in Larry's. The sight of Phil's green hair provided some light relief and we soaked up the atmosphere before the game.
I was a wee bit delayed for the start and as I sat down there was an empty seat to my right. Ok maybe this table only had 8. Nope I was told that we had a casualty already AA cracked by the mighty J 6. Deepstack tactics my arsium. Then two hands later I was put to the test.
I am UTG+1 and I find AA with the blinds 25/50 I make it 175 to go. Man on left raises to 1200 and a couple of seats further on Smurf calls. No Hollywood all my chips are over the line. I am saying "I have AA and the pot will do me thank you very much" or at least I thought that was what my action screamed. Man on left calls, Smurf gets out of the way. He table QQ, hmm big call I thought. Anyway my AA holds and I effectively double up. Game was good for most of the afternoon after that to be honest and after the break I was moved to table 1. Notable hand on that table was A9 limp UTG all limps, board comes AK9, I bet, called then the SB shoves all in. I have him covered with 5k to spare so I reshove. Original caller tanks then gets away from the pot. SB table K9 and I get some more chips.
Pretty standard from there for a while with no heroics as I bumbled along on average chips for ages but as it got the nitty gritty I was getting no cards. I manage to take Petch out with the mighty A3 against his AJ when I hit the straight, but that apart I was not really getting any cards and the table was very aggressive (Chen was on it FFS, and Rodders). My exit hand was when we were 5 handed and for the third time in a row I shoved (the previous two I had hands LOL) with A9 and got called by Chen with JJ no improvement and I was off to the pub.
It was late and I really didn't fell great so it wasn't long before I hit my bed.
Sunday was a day for drinking and having a bit of Craic with good people. All in all a great weekend as usual. Pat the barman in Larry's is a diamond and we shared a few with him on Sunday night in O'Donahues along with Rodders and his Silver medal. Top result back to back silvers.. The Stockton Massive were at fault for the shots we consumed as we taught some Americans world geography. Casey (A girl FFS) from Boston was particularly cute BTW.
Roll on Luton......
