Dara O'Kearney

Dublin

Poker pro/coach/commentator ♦️ @unibetpoker Ambassador 🌍 Award winning pod @thechiprace 🎤 Author 7 #1 selling strategy books 🏃‍♂️international ultrarunner

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Articles

“The Chip Race’s” Unibet Sponsorship Comes to an End

6 days ago | vegasslotsonline.com | Dara O'Kearney

My first Unibet Open was in Citywest in Dublin in 2011. Looking back years later, my abiding memory was that it was the first time I played in a tournament where I felt like a foreigner in my own country. Exactly how much the collapse of the Celtic Tiger and subsequent austerity affected the Irish poker economy was made clear that there was a tournament in Ireland that got less than a dozen locals to buy in. Nevertheless, it was a very fun weekend.
Steve O’Dwyer Lashes Out at Daniel Smiljkovic in Late Reg Rant

1 week ago | vegasslotsonline.com | Dara O'Kearney |David K Lappin |Dan Katz |Owain Flanders

American poker pro Steve O’Dwyer is not happy with players who abuse the late registration system for tournaments. He took to X on Thursday to make his feelings clear, stating that “tournament organisers and directors need to start being extremely strict” about not allowing players to register once a late reg period has closed. Within the rant, he called out Daniel Smiljkovic specifically. He is a German player with around $92,000 in live earnings.
How to Build a Deep Run in a Poker Tournament

2 weeks ago | legaluspokersites.com | Dara O'Kearney

How to Build a Deep Run in a Poker Tournament Phil Hellmuth was in the news recently when he announced he doesn’t intend to play the WSOP Main Event this year, citing it as too arduous for players his age.
Memories From Ten Years of the Chip Race: Part Two

3 weeks ago | vegasslotsonline.com | Dara O'Kearney

In my last piece, I reminisced over five moments from the early days of the Chip Race podcast. Continuing from that, here’s five more memories from the poker podcast, hosted by myself and fellow VegasSlotsOnline News man David Lappin. I’m not going to lie: after a bright start to the second season, things went downhill fast. We struggled to get guests that meant much to our audience, and the listener numbers reflected that, dropping from episode to episode.
The Best Memories From Ten Years of The Chip Race: Part One

1 month ago | vegasslotsonline.com | Dara O'Kearney

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of The Chip Race podcast, I’ve delved into my memory to recall ten significant moments in the early evolution of the show. It’s March 2015, and after a few meetings with an Irish company that makes podcasts aimed at different niches (they have ones already for rugby, cricket, and horse racing), they pitch the idea that we do one on Irish poker. David and I agree to do it.
What to do when you are the worst player at the table

1 month ago | pokerstrategy.com | Dara O'Kearney

We are all the fish in some games but Dara O'Kearney has a few tips on how to reduce your disadvantage. One of the proudest achievements in my career has been all the people who have gotten to play in large "bucket list" tournaments thanks to my satellite book. This often means, however, that those players are going to be minus EV in the tournament itself. Nothing wrong with that, they might get lucky, use it as a springboard to learn or at least have an amazing experience.
The importance of population tendencies

1 month ago | pokerstrategy.com | Dara O'Kearney

Dara O'Kearney lays out a strategy for making reads on large groups of players (and when to avoid doing so). Population tendencies refer to the common leaks that are reliably present in a large group of players. It may be that NL100 players and under do not check/raise enough, or that PokerStars players are too aggressive, or American live players are too sticky. Perhaps the most important consideration regarding population tendencies is that they do change over time.
Post flop PKOs in 2 minutes

1 month ago | pokerstrategy.com | Dara O'Kearney

Dara O'Kearney has the cheat sheet for how to play after the flop when you can win a bounty. Despite being early birds with PKO, ICM and post flop ICM content, Barry and I have only never really done much on the topic of post flop PKO strategy. Here is the two-minute elevator pitch for how to play post flop pots when you can win a bounty. The big surprise is that your post flop continue range does not widen considerably. You continue with the same holdings that continue in a non-PKO hand.
How to spot leaks in poker

1 month ago | pokerstrategy.com | Dara O'Kearney

Fix your leaks and your game will come on in leaps and bounds - here is Dara O'Kearney's advice on knowing what is holding you back. It's a great idea in this game to always know what your leaks are. If you know the problem, you can work towards getting it fixed. Structuring your learning around leak fixing is a very organic way to learn, it's rewarding because your leaks cause you pain and poker is a game of making the fewest mistakes, so it usually improves your winrate the most.
Bad Boy Lappin Breaks the Rules in Barcelona

1 month ago | vegasslotsonline.com | Dara O'Kearney

Apart from Vegas, Barcelona is the foreign destination I’ve played the most abroad. I have a lot of memories both good and bad from Spain. It was in San Sebastián I got the worst ruling of my career. The hand started with the big blind not realizing he was big blind, looking at his cards, and folding. Everyone else followed suit so it folded to me in the small blind. I therefore assumed his hand was dead and went through the formality of shoving to pick up the blinds.