As appeared on PokerListings.com

Ciaran O'Leary Joins the Club

By Jesse Clark
PokerListings.com

Ciaran O'Leary beat out the biggest non-Main Event field ever (almost 3,000 participants) to claim the bracelet for the $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em event. Sitting between him and his $727,012 in winnings, PokerListings.com talked to O'Leary about his past in Ireland, his plans for tonight and his acceptance into the upper crust of poker. Here are his humble words, minus the brogue.

How are you feeling?

Very tired, but I feel fantastic. It's been really something - I've got my friends, I've got the cameras in my face, everybody wants to talk to me, I've got an amazing bracelet on my hand and I just beat out as tough a field as you're going to take on. So I feel fantastic.

I'm very humbled as well. I know the game still has a lot to teach me, so I look forward to it.

You talked about a tough field - first of all, what did you think of Paul Evans' play?

Paul is a good player, he's very solid - and again, if someone had plucked me from the crowd and put me in there I would have to give every single player respect because they all maneuvered their way through such a hard field.

So I was impressed with his play. I don't think I could fault him, there at the end when he had the six, the second pair, and I played very shrewdly and maybe he thought I was just trying to be the bully and push him out of the hand and as it turned out ...

I figured to myself, if he's got the six I'm in great shape. If he'd had the king, I'm thinking he could still have a jack, queen or ace, but I think he would have probably left me raising pre-flop if that was the case, so once I factored in that process then it made my play a lot more comfortable.

Remember, he had like one-point-one, he made it about 550 thousand, that only left him with five-fifty, and he's not going to put the five-fifty out there initially unless he believes he has the best hand. So therefore, once he makes his mind up, I cannot fault his play after that.

I have no problem with him making the call, because in order to put the five-fifty out there originally, he obviously thinks he has the best hand. So then that would be correct for him to quickly call me after I move all-in - because I could have anything, any two cards at all.

Were you afraid at all seeing Alex playing the final table?

To be quite honest my friend, no. I don't know him. I've been playing with him. He seems like a really nice guy; he's an amazing player. But was I afraid of him? Absolutely not.

I started playing this game when I was about 8 years old. I'm 33 right now, and we played every type of game. In Ireland we have some amazing, amazing poker players. Everything revolves around the horse track and the dog track and the side games and the poker.

You started out playing some tournaments in Ireland - was it a steady move to get here, or was it a jump for you?

Not at all. I was down seven or eight of the last 10 World Series, and I used to come down and play in the cash games a lot. I loved Binion's. I was sad to see it be moved, but these guys are doing an amazing job, and it would never have gotten to this stage had it stayed with Binion's.

The game has evolved so, so much in the last four or five years. You could arguably go ahead and give it a different name.

My friend over there, he was third in the Seniors Championship, I think in 2002, and he told me: they started off with 400 players at the start and by the end of Day 1, they were down to 320 or 330. It was the old folk, you know?

They used to play a different style of poker - if I lead out and you come over the top, and if I don't have aces or kings, I'm laying down. It was almost a gentleman's style of poker to a certain degree, and I'm a bit of an old man myself.

I used to love that style of poker, so I've had to adjust; and I didn't have any trouble in this. I played a lot of poker at Lucky Chances in San Francisco, I played a little bit in Bay 101 and I've played a lot in Vegas. I mean, I've probably been to Vegas 60 times in the last 10 years.

Before I got married I used to come here every other week, and I just love it. I've been playing for a long time and the game has definitely evolved, into a definitely much more exciting game for the viewer.

As you saw in there today, it gets people going; and the old style was great, but it was more of a plodding-type style, whereas now there's a lot more ramming and jamming and you really need to have balls at certain times because you almost have to say to yourself, yeah, the money is big - and it's very important, believe me - but why would he do what he's doing at this time?

I kind of start at the back and backtrack, and it's a system that seems to work for me.

I made what I believe to be some pretty good calls here today, like the A-8 against the A-7 when I raised and he moved all-in and I'm thinking about it and thinking about it and I said, "You know what? I've got the best hand here."

Do you have big plans for tonight?

We'll probably go for dinner, have a few beers, and take it easy. We'll probably talk a lot. It's not going to be as crazy as you might think, because everybody's tired. These guys have been here with me these last few days, and we're just going to relax.

I'm very humbled. I'm not going to be strutting down the card halls thinking I know everything about this game, believe me. There's thousands of players that are out there that are just scratching, just trying to get into this club.

I think there's about twenty 20 players that are in the elite club. The Doyle Brunsons, the Daniel Negreanus, the Phil Iveys, the Chris Fergusons. They're all in their special, special package, right there.

Then there's about another 200 players, from the Grinder to some recent WPT winners and World Series of Poker winners in the next group; and then there's about another 2,000 of us that are just hoping that someone's going to have another ticket and give it out.

Today I got a ticket, and hopefully now I'll be seen more as being in that next stage. It's been a great experience, and I'm very happy.

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