{"id":3936,"date":"2023-08-11T22:34:38","date_gmt":"2023-08-12T02:34:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.advancedpokertraining.com\/poker\/blog\/?p=3936"},"modified":"2023-08-11T22:40:23","modified_gmt":"2023-08-12T02:40:23","slug":"ireland-poker-and-hurling-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pokertraining.com\/poker\/blog\/ireland-poker-and-hurling-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland Poker AND HURLING Report"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One of the things I enjoy most about traveling is finding new poker rooms. I collect a poker chip from each cardroom I visit (I haven\u2019t counted recently, but I\u2019ve got about 125 in my collection).\u00a0 Poker is a game that unites people from all corners of the globe, and serves as a universal language of camaraderie and competition. I just got back from two weeks in Ireland, and poker is no different there.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The first thing that surprised me there is that I assumed everyone spoke English. The country has two official languages, English and Irish Gaelic, simply known as \u201cIrish\u201d over there. All road signs are in both languages, and I met one person at the airport who only spoke Irish. We had to use google translate to communicate.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Travelling to Europe makes one laugh at the things we call \u201cold\u201d in America. I live about an hour away from St. Augustine, Florida, which was founded in 1565. That\u2019s ANCIENT by our standards. In Ireland, I saw ruins and tombs dating back to 3200 B.C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poker in Ireland<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

But forgive me from getting sidetracked. You don\u2019t care about the ruins anyway, you just want to know about the poker. When my wife first told me she wanted to go to Ireland this summer, I told her that sounded lovely.\u00a0Thirty seconds later I was googling \u201cCan I play poker in Ireland?\u201d \u00a0(Do not act smug and tell me you\u2019ve never done that before!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, in most of the smaller Irish towns that we visited, the cardrooms had closed down. They were listed on google maps as \u201cpermanently closed\u201d. I can only guess that they were victims of the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in Dublin there were still plenty of members-only casinos. At first, I was worried I wouldn\u2019t be able to get in to these, but a little bit of paperwork allowed me to become a member on the spot. It’s amazing how casinos want to help you gamble as efficiently as possible!<\/p>\n\n\n

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The D1 Casino<\/a> was walking distance from my hotel in Dublin, and it did have a classy members-only feel to it.\u00a0The casino offered free drinks, waitresses walking around with plates of free hors d’oeuvres, and no crowds. There was only a single $1\/$2 game going on when I got there, but the locals were sociable and enjoyed having a newcomer in their game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This report wouldn\u2019t be complete without at least one hand history. I had 5♥<\/mark>-4♥<\/mark> on the button and flopped a flush draw.\u00a0 There were about 5 players left in the hand (typical), and I bet the flop and turn. Nonetheless, there were still three of us in the hand on the river when I made my flush on an unpaired board.\u00a0 The first player to act thinks for a whole minute and then shoves for about 2x pot.\u00a0That\u2019s got to be 100% the nuts, right?\u00a0 Nope. I laid it down and he showed the bluff.\u00a0 Don\u2019t discount those pesky Irish!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other types of gambling in Ireland<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Horse racing holds a special place in Irish culture, with a history spanning centuries. There was a racetrack in almost every town we visited. I was told that for the bigger races (such as the Irish Derby), people travel the entire country to partake in the action. The tracks that I saw were all grass (turf) and I even saw some hurdles set up. I guess there must be hurdle races as well as the flat races that we\u2019d be more accustomed to here. I asked one of the locals, \u201cDo a lot of people bet on the races?\u201d and I\u2019ve never seen an Irishman laugh so hard.\u00a0I\u2019ll take that for a yes.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Irish Hurling<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Forget the horse racing though, there is one event in Ireland that tops all other gambling opportunities, and that is the All-Ireland Hurling Championship. As it turned out, this event was going on in Dublin during the time I was there.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Irish Hurling is the ultimate manly man\u2019s game. Hurling’s origins can be traced back over 3,000 years to ancient Ireland, making it one of the world’s oldest field games. How do I even describe this game? It\u2019s a continuous, full-contact sport like rugby. But picture 30 guys on a rugby field with big wooden hockey sticks, hitting a baseball around at up to 100 MPH. These days, the participants reluctantly wear helmets, but no other protective gear. <\/p>\n\n\n

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The All-Ireland Hurling Championship<\/a>, which this year featured Limerick vs Kilkenny, is the Irish Super Bowl. Over 80,000 fans from all over the country pack the stadium. I wasn\u2019t able to obtain a ticket, but a friend of mine (a local) went because he had a ticket from his employer. He said it was worth thousands of euros.\u00a0I had to watch it on Irish TV. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just like the American Super Bowl, you can bet on EVERYTHING in the hurling championship. The outright winner, winner with a point spread, the over\/under, first team to score, first team to get a penalty, number of broken arms before halftime. Ok maybe not that last one, but you might as well be able to bet on that. I have so much respect for the skill level and toughness of these hurling warriors. I now have a new bucket list item:  attend a hurling match! (and, who knows\u2026maybe make a wager or two).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the things I enjoy most about traveling is finding new poker rooms. I collect a poker chip from each cardroom I visit (I haven\u2019t counted recently, but I\u2019ve got about 125 in my collection).\u00a0 Poker is a game that unites people from all corners of the globe, and serves as a universal language […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3944,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nIreland Poker AND HURLING Report - Advanced Poker Training Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Steve shares about his recent trip to Ireland, poker there, and the All-Ireland Hurling Championship!\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pokertraining.com\/poker\/blog\/ireland-poker-and-hurling-report\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ireland Poker AND HURLING Report - 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