{"id":64663,"date":"2018-07-04T09:32:49","date_gmt":"2018-07-04T09:32:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.partypoker.com\/blog?p=64663"},"modified":"2018-07-04T09:32:49","modified_gmt":"2018-07-04T09:32:49","slug":"padraigs-corner-making-americans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.partypoker.com\/blog\/en\/padraigs-corner-making-americans.html","title":{"rendered":"Padraig’s Corner: Making Americans"},"content":{"rendered":"

A couple of weeks ago, the partypoker Grand Prix Tour<\/strong> came to Galway for the first time. My main concern was not the guarantee (that was not going to be a problem as we had the local Eglinton Club<\/strong> as a partner) but that the sheer expectation of great craic, based on the fun we had when party was last in town several years ago for the televised IPC, would be too much.<\/p>\n

I needn\u2019t have bothered as it turned out to be the same as any other visit to this mad city. A couple of days after hitting town, you begin to think everyone except you have been assured the world will end on Tuesday and is acting accordingly. Then Tuesday comes and nothing happens. Rinse and repeat.<\/p>\n

All the usual suspects were there having a laugh. I was delighted to see ex European and Irish Open champ Alan Betson<\/strong> there. Alan was easily the funniest and arguably the most naturally talented Irish player I\u2019ve ever played with. Back in the days when you had to figure it out or go bust, I learnt lots from going to the pub with Alan<\/strong> and Scott Gray<\/strong> and exchanging information. These days, they\u2019d call it a study group. Back then, it was known by a more technical term. Piss up. Then one day, Alan just got bored and quit. Nice to see him back.<\/p>\n

Of course, in the circumstances Alan stories were everywhere. First blog I ever wrote, or rather dictated to Jesse May<\/strong>, involved a taxi trip from Binions to McCarran airport we took with Alan. Alan was a little under the weather. Probably something he ate. The cab driver was hugely talented. He could talk non stop gibberish whilst drinking coffee without missing a beat. To be fair, he was very polite. He insisted on turning around and making eye contact with his back seat passengers whilst talking to them. I considered this a breach of health and safety common sense though I am prepared to admit it\u2019s not my strongest suit. It wasn\u2019t doing a lot for Alan\u2019s hangover. Then our driver noticed that a taxi had been in an accident on the other side of the highway and had finished up facing the wrong way. He was wondering out loud what had happened. \u201cMaybe he was drinking coffee and looking around at his back seat passengers\u201d said Alan. That was the end of that.<\/p>\n

My favourite Alan story also goes back to Binions. Alan was involved in a cash game in the middle of the night. There was a guy at the table who just couldn\u2019t miss no matter how badly he played. He couldn\u2019t or wouldn\u2019t shut up and was winning nearly every pot and chirping. The lads were biting their tongues as they didn\u2019t want to lose him till they got their money back. Finally, Alan cracked. The guy, desperate for a conversation topic, noticed that Alan was smoking a brand of cigarette he wasn\u2019t familiar with. Alan politely explained that this brand was only made in Ireland. \u201cOh\u201d said our man, \u201cI didn\u2019t know the Irish made anything\u201d. That was it for Alan. \u201cWell, we made enough Americans anyway. Didn\u2019t we?\u201d he replied. Game over.<\/p>\n

A few years ago, I was sitting with Mike Sexton<\/strong><\/a> at the bar in The Bellagio sportsbook, watching The Lakers. Mike had been predicting the future of poker to me since 1996 and although I\u2019d been sceptically amused initially, at this stage I was a believer that however unlikely his prophecy seemed, it was probably going to happen. On this occasion he was telling me about the dream that became partypoker. Mike was gushing with the ideas he had for the new brand. I believed everything he said except the bit about how he could survive 12 months in India which I thought was somewhere between highly unlikely and absolutely impossible. Thankfully, I was wrong. Again. And in September partypoker are bringing the Irish Poker Masters<\/strong><\/a> to Killarney, Ireland\u2019s answer to Brigadoon.<\/p>\n

If you love poker, breathtaking scenery, music, laughter and the craic it\u2019s an absolute must. Check out partypoker for online satellites and promotions and spots like fitzwilliamcardclub.com<\/a> and theeglinton.com<\/a> for live satellites.See you there!<\/p>\n

Ready to join the party?<\/h3>\n

If you\u2019re ready to jump into the action, then click here to download partypoker and get started<\/strong>!<\/a><\/p>\n

If you already have an account with us, click here to open partypoker and hit the tables!<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A couple of weeks ago, the partypoker Grand Prix Tour came to Galway for the first time. My main concern was not the guarantee (that was not going to be a problem as we had the local Eglinton Club as a partner) but that the sheer expectation of great craic, based on the fun we<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":64665,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1219],"tags":[1775,186,200,201,969,50837],"yst_prominent_words":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.partypoker.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64663"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.partypoker.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.partypoker.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.partypoker.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.partypoker.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64663"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.partypoker.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64664,"href":"https:\/\/www.partypoker.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64663\/revisions\/64664"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.partypoker.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.partypoker.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.partypoker.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.partypoker.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64663"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.partypoker.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=64663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}