A Tale of Two Lives!

The Storm Before the Calm!
Well last night was a first, I never played in two live games at two different locations on the same night before and I had mixed fortunes.

Before I headed out the door to the first game I had played about 600 + hands on online micro-cash tables and ran into some terrible luck. The hands played counted towards the PokerSchoolOnline FullRing vs. 6-Max Challenge and to be honest I was a little bit tilted that it didn't go according to plan but that's Poker, you just gotta pick yourself up and move on to the next session.

After that I was a little relieved to be stepping away from the PC and getting out there to a live game that I was looking forward to for the last few days. It was a satellite game to qualify to represent my County team in the upcoming Irish Team Challenge event on April 21st.

No Place Like Home!
The place where I live in Ireland is called 'County Meath' and also known as 'The Royal County'. That's where the 'Royal' part comes from in my username. Representing my County would have been an honor for me and I would have taken great pride in it had I made the team.

Trim Castle - In the town where I grew up!

The qualifier took place in my local card club, JJP Poker Navan, and when I sat down at the table I met a person that I had chatted to before online. Thomas Mc Caul is also an avid poker fan and social media user and I thought that he lived many miles away, turned out he lived just up the road so it is a small World after all.

The Audacity of a Nut Straight!
Unfortunately for me it was also Thomas who sent me to the rail in this one at a very early stage. I opened for three times the blind on the button with 8,9 suited and got called by Thomas on the big blind. After some betting and the flop/turn I had hit a Queen high straight and shoved into Thomas's Ace high straight to send me packing for the night. Didn't see it coming, my bad!

I'm the one standing behind the camera!

And Take Two......
After that I hung around the club for a bit, had a chat and some coffee and took a few photos. It was during this time that I remebered that there was another pub game on in town on a Tuesday night so I made my way to the 'Lodge'. There I met up with a few old friends that I had played against before in a local pub league so it was good to catch up with them. I had better fortune there too finishing fourth to double-up my buy-in.

A Final Thought......
Besides the social aspect to the night it was good to observe different players personalities and habits at the tables. It was clear that the players in the Poker Club were playing a much more technical game than the pub players. Saying that, some of the pub players showed great skill and made some great plays at the right time. One guy in particular caught my eye as he watched everything even when he wasn't in a hand. That's always a good sign of a player taking the game seriously.

I'll play again live at JJP Poker Club on Good Friday but for now it's back to the online grind!