King Cas is back in Town! - EPT Dublin Report

Author: Tony Cascarino

Following my decent finish at the EPT in London, where I managed to get into the money, collecting 32,000 euros, I was really looking forward to ‘coming home’ to Dublin. I’m the butt of a bit of harmless banter from other poker players about that, but it’s all in good part; in any event, I keep telling them I’m moving up the money list of Irish players.

I was keen, but not desperate, to get into the money again in Ireland, but I felt as though I’d played really well in London, so was actually more focused on maintaining that momentum and if I won a few quid, then fine.

The latest leg of the EPT also gave me an opportunity to see the poker phenomenon that is Annette Obrestad, the 19-year-old Norwegian, at first hand. It takes something to establish yourself in any field, be it poker, sport, politics or business and be immediately recognised when your first name is uttered, but incredibly, that is what Annette has done over a very short space of time.

She won £1 million at the WSOP Europe back in September and came close to claiming a second victory in Dublin, but in the end had to make do with second place and a cool 6,000. I was playing in the Padraig Harrington charity poker event at the same time as she went heads-up with Rueben Peters, the American guy who eventually won and I saw her afterwards. To say she was unhappy was an understatement!

Annette was part of another Dublin phenomena: the number of Scandinavians who made the final table. This is hardly surprising when you consider how many of them travelled. As I’ve played various EPT legs and in other tournaments both in Europe and the US, I’ve noticed their style of play, which makes them very difficult to play against when you’ve got a marginal hand because they’re so brave.

I was up against one such guy in Dublin when I was holding AJ. He raised, so I re-raised and he then went all-in! I pondered for a minute and then thought, ‘hang on, this guy’s a Scandinavian, I’m going to call’, so I did. It turned out he had 10,7.

Dublin was, as ever, was hugely enjoyable. Sure, the craic was fantastic, but I feel as though I achieved my principle aim, which was to improve upon how I played in London. Everything was going really fine and I was midway in the chip count after nine levels with around 80-odd players remaining, when I found myself walking onto a very aggressive table. Here, my old pal Johnny Lodden (another Norwegian, would you believe) was constantly attacking, raising every pot. With hindsight, I felt he set the tone for the table, continually re-raising, keeping everyone on their toes and probably adding an element of aggression to everyone else’s style.

My end came when I picked up pocket fours on the small blind and didn’t have a huge number of chips left, so although the bets were 3k, someone raised 8k and I wasn’t going to fold. I went all-in and eventually stumbled to the big blind and pocket queens.

My immediate reaction was disappointment as it would have been great to register back-to-back wins, but overall, I played sufficiently well to be satisfied with my performance. Why? Well, I’m enjoying this season much more than last, mainly because I’m no longer bogging myself down with strategy analysis before the tournament starts. I’ve stopped trying to devise what I now realise was a slightly restrictive game plan. Instead, I’m approaching the table in a much more open minded fashion and my game has improved because of it.

What does this mean? I think much of it is attributable to experience – I’m not fazed by competing in a televised tournament, for example and as a consequence, I’m trying to play more instinctively, to outplay an opponent with the cards I have rather than decide beforehand that I’ll do x or y, irrespective of what cards are dealt.

I’ve never been one for showing my cards, unless called upon to do so, and this has done my reputation no harm. To overhear yourself being referred to as a ‘poker rock’ doesn’t half boost the confidence. This worked to my advantage in Dublin too – although not against a Scandinavian this time.

I picked up 7,6 and my opponent (responsible for the ‘poker rock’ compliment) had a pair of jacks; the flop came 10, 6, 3. The guy bet, so I raised and then he hesitated. He proceeded to effectively talk himself out of the pot as he pondered over what I might be holding. “You’ve got three sixes,” he mused to no-one in particular. Well, I wasn’t going to stand up and say, “You’re absolutely wrong – here, take my chips!” The more he thought about it, the less likely he was to take matters any further and in the end, he folded. Not one to miss an opportunity, I turned over the edge of my 6 so he could see it. “Good call” the act was supposed to signify to him, but inside I was doing my own version of a fisted salute as I won the pot with a pair of sixes!

It’s off to St Kitts in a couple of weeks for the CPC, an event no-one could complain about attending, especially in late November. I’m anxious to keep grinding out results by not being too restricted in my approach to the game and in terms of poker strategy, that’s mine for the Caribbean. I’ll let you know how I get on with this laid-back attitude. Now where did I leave that suntan lotion….

Tags: EPT, Poker Tournaments, professional poker, Tony Cascarino

This entry was posted on Monday, November 19th, 2007 at 7:58 pm and is filed under News & Promotions Blog.