A time to look back in time

[bennythedip2]

Original Interview by Derek Kelly

The Talent of Padraig

Name: Padraig Parkinson
Age: 48
Home: Ireland and anywhere that’ll have me.
Favourite Poker room: The old Binions
Starting Hand: Anything
Biggest Win: Can’t remember

Padraig Parkinson is a difficult interview. Not because he doesn’t have a lot to say, (believe me he most certainly does), but rather because of my dilemma of how to portray a man who is an undoubted poker talent yet has what I choose to call difficulties in his personal habits, (Padraig himself refers to them a ‘The torture and the burden’).

I had just finished a long and relatively sane interview with Steve Davis when I bumped into the world weary Irishman. Naturally it was while we were both on the way to the Bar at the Irish Open. He smiled at me and asked; ‘had I got any sense out of the snooker player?’ I said it was about time he gave a sensible interview. His comeback was ‘why not now?’

Taking in the half empty pint of Guinness he was carefully resting on the table we stopped at, (a half empty pint that found companionship with a full big brother and a glass that looked suspiciously like it held more JD than coke), I must have betrayed a look of doubt as to his ability to be sensible never mind give an interview.

‘Don’t be worrying Gutshot man I’m not even a quarter of the way there yet’, was enough of an assurance for us to take our ease at that quiet table in the corner and commence what turned out to be an enjoyable hour or so!

Maybe it was because we’re both Irish, and both confident of who and what we are, that the interview became brutally honest right from the off or maybe I was just pissed off at him for being such a good player and not making the most of it. He on the other hand was neither defensive or aggressive – just honest.

Derek: Where do you want to start?
Padraig: You’re doing the interview. Well, interview!

Derek: Fair enough. When did you first start playing poker seriously?
Padraig: When I was at Trinity College, (Dublin). I was doing an economics degree and laying the basis for what would become my real profession.

Derek: What were you playing at the time?
Padraig: Well it was the mid to late seventies so it was mainly Stud and Draw though we did play some of the more esoteric games like Southern Cross and other variations of poker.

Derek: Did you beat the game?
Padraig: Overall I managed to cover all my dailies and come out with a good few quid on top.

Derek: When did you realize you were a better than average player?
Padraig: I think we all think we’re above average but I suppose I began to believe it when I played some of the private games around Dublin and found that the standard of the so called ‘good’ players wasn’t all that.

Derek: What did you do after you left college?
Padraig: Eventually I went into insurance and stayed at that for a while but the real money I was making was at poker.

Derek: I suppose the first time you came to the notice of the poker playing public was at the 1999 World Series Main Event when you finished third to another Irishman, Noel Furlong.
Padraig: Yeah that was awful.

Derek: Why?
Padraig: (has a long pensive moment), I suppose I still believe I should have won it. Eric Sidel and Huck Seed had gone from the final table and it was generally agreed that I was the best player left, and I had chips.

Derek: What happened?
Padraig: You must remember that that was a time when every Tom, Dick or Harry wasn’t spunking ten grand on having a shot. Most of the field was made up of really good players. I was playing out of my skin and the fear at the table with the last four wasn’t in my seat.

Derek: So what happened?
Padraig: I made a decision and it didn’t work out.

Derek: You still picked up the best part of half a million Dollars.
Padraig: True but ……… ah never mind.

Derek: I think I know what you mean Padraig but you’ve had a fair bit of success since and that can’t be said for the guy who won it.
Padraig: Do you know what? I never played a decent game for three years after that. I played in lots of tournaments but none of them, I repeat none of them, got my best game.

Derek: How do you mean?
Padraig: Take the Late Night Poker win for example as a lot of people go on about that. Sure I hadn’t a clue half of the time where I was or what I was doing. My Mother was seriously ill at the time and I remember going for a walk with Surinder (Sunar), just before the final and all the two of us could keep saying was ‘Hamish is dead, Hamish is dead. (Hamish Shah, poker player and winner of season 4 of LNP, had suddenly died aged 33 and was buried the day of the season 5 final that Padraig won). Sure none of us were right in the head that day and I was the worst of all.

(There followed a long pause while he reflected on those events and I didn’t think it right to interrupt).

But in all honesty they were just two in a series of incidents. My head was all over the place and I kept going back to that World Series final; table and how near I’d been. And then, (he held up his pint) there was this.

Derek: You’re known as someone who likes a jar?
Padraig: Sometimes it goes beyond like. (unbelievably at that moment Alex Higgins stopped to say hello. We both passed pleasantries before he shuffled off to another table.). Look at Alex. He knows what I mean. It’s like a torture.

Derek: So when did you get your head together and start playing to the best of your ability again?
Padraig: It came back in bits and pieces. I hooked up with some good supportive people and they helped me find a way through the haze.

Derek: I interviewed Collette Doherty a while back and she reckons you are the best player she ever played against when you’re sober.
Padraig: Collette is an excellent judge of talent. Seriously though she is no mean poker player herself and has been a great friend to me over the years.

Derek: You’re starting to have some good results again though it’s hard to know these days if you’re a poker player or a TV commentator/pundit.
Padraig: I enjoy the Telly stuff. Jesse, (May), is a good guy to work with and we always have a laugh. I don’t think it’s getting in the way of my poker. I’m playing in all the WPT events this year and I think you’ll see my name on at least one winners cheque before next Christmas.

Derek: You have a strange way of playing which could never be described as traditional.
Padraig: I’ve been around the game a long time and I think there are many ways of being what you call traditional. The basics of the game like position, tells, changing gears and table presence are available to everyone. But it’s not enough. You have to have more.

Derek: What more?
Padraig: People become embroiled in the technicalities of the game. The maths – what are the odds on this happening and how many outs have they got. Sure it’s a part of the game but what you’ve got to understand is most of the game is about confusion. If you accept that then you’re heading in the right direction.

One of you’re favourite questions when you’re interviewing is what’s someone’s favourite starting hand. Well let me tell you if you have a favourite starting hand you are bollixed from the word go.
Do you really think Doyle Brunson’s favourite hand is 10-2?

Derek: So it’s Aces all the way with you then?
Padraig: I’ve lost as often with Aces as I’ve won with 7-2.

Derek: What do you think of the current poker scene?
Padraig: I think defining it is like trying to put britches on a frog. You might succeed but it’ll take a while and when you’re done you’ll wonder what was the point?

Derek: Who would you say are the top five tournament player around today?
Padraig: Phil Ivey – Jeff Duvall – Daniel Negreanu – Donnacha O’Dea – Dan Harrington.

Derek: And the best woman player?
Padraig: Jennifer Harman.

Derek: You’ve played all over the world and against all the best players in the world. Have you ever sat down with someone and thought ‘Shit I’m in trouble here’.
Padraig: No. There are a lot of players out there who have over-inflated opinions of themselves but they are only in baby school when it comes to me and over-inflated self belief.

Derek: How would you sum yourself up?
Padraig: If I have a talent then it’s for the game of poker. I have successfully murdered that talent since 1999. Other than that I’m an all right guy.

Derek: What are the odds on a successful resurrection of the murdered talent?
Padraig: Talent is a bit like the Phoenix. Somewhere there’s a spark waiting to develop into a fire that will see the bird rise from the ashes.

Derek: Very poetic.
Padraig: Jaysus that’s only the half of it you should hear me when I get going.

Derek: Any advice for the new players to the game?
Padraig: Don’t drink and play. (laughs). Learn the basics of the game properly then play as much as you can because there’s no substitute for experience. Remember it’s not simple. And finally be aware it’s a whole lot easier to walk away from a big hand than it is to walk away from the table a loser.

Derek: Thanks Padraig.
Padraig: Let’s do this again next year and see if the old Phoenix has risen.

Derek: It’s a deal and in all honesty Padraig I hope it has.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Update..

The reason i posted this article is because not only has Padraig been a great player over the years but it brought back memories of how i started playing live tournament poker back in the late 80's .
One of the players i had the pleasure of sitting at the same table was the 'late' great "Hamish Shah" (He really was a legend and a great player)
The first time was at the then "Sergeant York's" in Reading, other players who were on that the circuit were Tony Chapman ,Graham Pound , Simon Trumper.
After i'd started playing at Reading i then widened my range and started playing at the Grosvenor Luton and met and played with the likes of my great friend Rod Boland (7card stud) Paul Alterman , Richard Ashby, Dave Welsh , Steve Vladar and my old mate Mick McGee.
It was all these guys who i had the chance to sit and chat about poker, and if i wasn't on a final table, i'd make the point of watching any of them if they where in the final.
It was also at Luton where i met Steve Kirk and we had some great fun and laughs, once when he made a final table in a big 7card pot limit tournament, i had to hold his hand and calm him down after a waitress had cleared his half empty cup of tea..
jeez tea for Christ's sake !!
Anyway he did calm down and went on to win the festival event, we laughed about the tea as much as the win..
Anyways the thing is this, when i think back to those days in the late 80's and early 2000's i sometime's wonder how far "Hamish Shah" could have gone in the world of poker before his untimely death at the age of 33 .

I know people talk of today's good players but in all honesty they had to learn somewhere and all would have had a 'mentor' to help!!
I realised how important it was to have a mentor at this game, and was lucky to have learned from "Mick McGee", "Rod Boland", and a little from the great "Hamish Shah"

~ ~ Bazza ( ''.)

[bennythedip2]

Well were back on the road this weekend, so work finishes thursday and on Friday it's motorway time down the M4 to Wales !
I'll be meeting up with my old mate and poker buddy JC "johnboy"Chapman on route, so it's debatable as to the state i'll be in come Saturday around mid-day for the ..SPUKT in Swansea !!

THE SKY POKER UK TOUR: LEG 5 Saturday 9th May 2009

Leg 5 of the Sky Poker UK Tour kicks off with a £5000 GTD tournament at - Aspers at Salubrious Place, Wind Street, Swansea, SA1 1EE. Saturday 9th May 2009.

In addition to the GTD prize pool SKYpoker are giving the TOP 10 players a seat into the £25,000 GTD SPUKT Grand Final in June at the "DTD" Nottingham Worth £220 each!

Representing Sky Poker on the day will be, Michelle Orpe, Richard Orford and Tony "Tikay" Kendall - and of course not forgetting your fellow Sky Poker players! You'll be able to put a face to the alias in this live tournament!

This event will be recorded and highlights go out on a later show ..Look out for the dark glasses to hide the red eyes with matchsticks propping the lids open

[Part-Timer]

With your record Benny, are you sure it's the M4

[bennythedip2]

hahahaaa Thats why i'm leaving Friday lunch time
The game starts 2.00 Saturday afternoon

[bally73]

good luck Benny keep us posted

[Tony2005]

Its a bit late but......



GOOD LUCK BENNY.....

[bennythedip2]

It was a great trip and game but we went out after 2hrs, just couldn't get into the "Zone" and dribbled away chips untill the enevitable 'Bad-beat" exit

[Tony2005]

Unlucky Benny.....at least you had a good time away from he tables......


Im not one for bad beat stories but if you feel it will ease the pain im quite happy to read it......

[bennythedip2]

Noooooooooooooooo i try not to do bad-beat stories, i was ahead pre-flop--and after the flop... he caught his 'flush draw' on the turn ..it happens