Shuffle Up and Deal Folks

The European Poker Challenge, the Austrian Open, the Irish Open, and the Party Poker Poker Nations Cup are all just around the corner.

Vienna, Austria is to be the first stop. It's my first trip to Austria and I'm very excited about it. Party Poker has invited me to come over and take part in the European Poker Challenge. It's a format that is set up with East taking on the West, which I'm told consists of the top thirty players from each. A couple of days after that I am playing in the Austrian Open, which will also surely draw many of the top players in Europe.

Party Poker does such a wonderful job with all the events in which they sponsor. They continue to set the bar very high and all I talk too seem to agree. I tip my hat to all of the staff there and to Neil and Warren in particular. The thing is with so many great tournaments nowadays that a player no longer needs to leave their country if they don't want to. So it's a credit to Party Poker and the Concord club for putting on such great events and continuing to entice players from other countries to travel.

I'm ready to put on a strong showing and hopefully will be able to get the job done. Fingers crossed. However if for some unfortunate reason that I am ousted from the tourney early (God forbid) then there's a good chance that I'll be found wiping my tears away, inside in the commentary booth giving my opinion. I had an opportunity to do some in Ireland at the Irish Poker Championship in January and that went very well.

After Austria I then head for the auld sod, the mother land, the old country. Yep I'm going home. I will spend about four days in Cork with my mum (bless her). She is sure to fatten me up with some good old fashion cooking, yummy, beef stew, mac and cheese, like only she can do. Yes friends, my stomach is growling at the mere thought of it and though it's a noise that causes my cat to hiss at me I can't help i. There's just no denying, that there is something oh so special with mothers home cooking. Slurrrp. Anyway, food aside, I really intend to just relax and catch up. She is such a wonderful lady. I'm very lucky!

Hopefully some of that luck will then rub off, as I head for the big smoke on the 19th… 'Ireland's capital' that's right, it's up to Dublin to do battle in the Paddy Power Poker Irish Poker Open. I'll be making the three hour journey from Cork on the train. It's such a pleasant and scenic route and it's not uncommon to experience all four seasons during this very short train ride.

The only shaky thing right now though is the US dollar. So I'm cutting coupons, raiding the young lad's money boxes (again!) and I'm down to using just two squares on the toilet paper. At this stage I could wipe the nose of a butterfly with out doing it any harm. But that's a story for another day.

I'll leave you with this, A final note, It's important to remember each time you sit at the poker table that you don't have to win every hand you're dealt, but merely the hands you play. You choose the hands you play. Choose wisely Indiana!

Ciaran