Doke vs Dwyer
Poker is by its nature an individual competition, yet most poker players are very social creatures. This creates a unique atmosphere among players trying to take each others money, yet also seeing each other as co-conspirators. In no other arena that I can think do the lines between competitors and collaborators blur quite so much. Poker players are quick to find common causes, and team events are always popular.
No prize other than bragging rights, but it should be a lot of fun
This year’s Irish Open will feature a Ryder Cup style tournament between my students and Simplify Poker Academy members, and members of JakaCoaching. No prize other than bragging rights, but it should be a lot of fun and generate lots of coverage and interest. The idea is the brainchild of Michael Dwyer, a prominent member of JakaCoaching. Faraz isn’t travelling to the Irish Open this year (he hopes to make it over next year), so Michael is standing in as the captain of Team Jaka.
How it works
The following events count:
| Event | Name | Buyin |
| 1 | Luxon Mystery | 1150 |
| 6 | Mini Irish Open | 240 |
| 26 | Main Event | 1150 |
| 37 | NLH 6-max | 350 |
| 40 | NLH 8-max | 1150 |
| 43 | HU | 350 |
| 45 | Hendon | 350 |
| 55 | Americas Cup | 350 |
| 61 | Ladies | 250 |
| 63 | Seniors | 1150 |
| 71 | Shoot-Out | 550 |
| 73 | JP Masters | 550 |
| 80 | Seniors | 350 |
In each event, Michael and I will nominate which players count before the event starts, ensuring we have the same number of players. For example, if they have 2 ladies and we have 4, I can only nominate 2 of our ladies to count.
The scoring system
We are keeping this as simple as possible: each player who counts scores the amount (in Euro) they cashed for in an event divided by the number of bullets they fired. At the end, the team with the most points wins. This has the advantage of keeping things simple but also ensure both teams should still be in the hunt til the end.
In most worlds:
whoever runs deepest in the Main will probably win it for their team.
Michael expressed concern I’d field Ray Wheatley in every event, so to prevent this, there’s a limit (5) to the number of events any player can be fielded in. This is a limit per player over the festival, not per team per event (in some events like the Main for example, we expect to have more than 5 players each)
Who is taking part?
Team Jaka will be made up mostly of travelling Americans, supplemented by a few Irish members of the site. Team SimplifyPoker will consist of Academy members (including the winner of the contest we ran here on VSO News last month to win an Irish Open seat, Steve Dunnett), my private students, and at least half a dozen members of the Turkish version of the site. Michael originally wanted to call it “Battle of the Brands” and frame it as Ireland versus the rest of the world, but that doesn’t really work since his team is basically Irish and Americans, and less than half my team will be Irish. We are (mostly) European though, so I suggested the Ryder Cup with me as Luke Donald and Michael as Keegan Bradley, but that doesn’t quite work either as a few cultured world traveller Americans are opting to join our team. David Lappin is calling it the Doke-Dwyer deathmatch.
Ever the combative competitor Michael is already seeking to rouse his team with messages like this one on the group Whatsapp group:
(The main objective here is…) the “craic” and to give Dara’s team a hiding.”
This was before he removed me from the group when he apparently realised having the opposing captain in it wasn’t a great idea. However, don’t tell Michael but I have my sources and spies in the group.
