It’s been almost exactly a decade since the first (and last) time I was in Ireland. Barbara and I were there for the wedding of some friends in Waterford and we spent a couple of days in Dublin before extending our excursions to Scotland and the Netherlands.

Ireland was the spark for me playing online. Before I ran across Tomer Berda and got serious about playing poker, I’d spotted ads for Cake Poker’s 2010 Irish Open satellites and tried my hand at a few, thinking it would be kind of cool to play poker in Dublin. I guess a year’s gone by because they’re running again. I haven’t been playing on Cake much (please get a Mac client) but I do have to say they’ve got the best Web site graphics of any of the poker sites. Last year I got down to heads-up in two of the five matches I played, coming up in second place (with no prize) each time. Hopefully I’ve improved since then.

My first attempt at one of the Quarter Final matches did not go well, however. A bet to force out players preflop with my (on hand 13!) ended up with two pair on the board by the turn, which made a full house for one of the other two players who stayed behind.