Liam Flood, who had been sitting on a paltry stack for much of the day is back up to 20k.

Having been crippled early on (in a hand described in an earlier post), The Gentleman had nursed his stack back up to 10k before finding pocket Aces.  Thankfully he picked them up in a hand where his opponent had QQ and he got it all in before the flop.

The rockets held up and Flood is well and truly back in the game.

2007 Irish Open champion Marty Smyth’s quest to claim a second major title in Ireland this year has come to and end.  He pushed all-in short stacked only for the player sitting to his left to pick up Aces.  the board changed nothing and Marty was sent to the rail.

That leaves Danny McHugh as the only 2007 Irish Open final tablist left in the tournament after Roland De Wolfe’s early exit.

John Magill, who earned a million dollar payday at the 2006 WSOP Main Event, was another early casualty. Annette Obrestad has yet to make a charge and is still hovering around the starting stack.

Juha Helpi, Kevin O’Connell and Surindar Sunar have all started promisingly and are well above the chip average as the players enter the dinner break.

The RDS seems to be experiencing strange goings on. Intermittant faults with the tournament clocks and projector screens, pocket pairs holding up against underdog hole-cards and indeed Roland De Wolfe not winning a hand from behind and exiting the tournament early.
I am the Walhroos was eliminated earlier after running into pocket Kings. Ben “the milky bar kid” Grundy is sitting on a very comfortable 30K stack as we start round four with the blinds at a very reasonable 100/200.
The current chip leader is French Man Anthony Lellouche with 40K.
Stay tuned for updates and don’t forget about tonights gruesomely generous Let R.I.P tournaments!

… and leaving the building.

Defending champion and Irish Open runner up, Roland De Wolfe’s run of success in the Emerald Isle has come to a end early on day 1.

Roland De Wolfe finds high stakes poker boring anyway

All in with top two pair on a J9 board De Wolfe was outdrawn by his opponent who held an up and down straight flush draw with the QdTd.  The king of diamonds on the turn completed the straight flush and De Wolfe could no longer even pray for one of his miracle river cards.

Thomas Wahlroos has also been eliminated.

In a hand that one would only expect to witness at a play money table…. possibly ludo..
Mr Flood, holding Ah Qd on a board that reads Qd7s3s8d, with 3,000 in the pot bets 3,000 as first to act and is called by Patrick Bruel, French Pop star turned poker player….

The river is the As giving Liam top two pair and he bets out 4,000 from his 6,000, Patrick calls.

Liam AhQd
Patrick 6s2s

Who said poker was a game of skill?

Liam is now very low on 2,000 chips.

132 players began Day 1B bringing the final number of entrants up to 221.  This is far lower than expected with the organisers allowing for a capacity of 600.  With a buy-in of €7,700+€300 the prizepool will be around €1.7 Million.

Now, one does not like to blow one’s own trumpet but it would seem remiss of me not to mention the €3 Million Guaranteed Prizepool for the upcoming Irish Open in March 2008 - start qualifying now for the chance to play in a real big money tournament

Petty one-upmanship aside there is still a lot of great poker to be played in Dublin over the coming days and Day 1B sees a lot of the big guns get their first taste of the action.

One of the exciting things about small fields is that it inevitably throws big names together at the same table and one table in particular has caught the home crowds attention. Irish Open Champion Marty Smyth is rubbing knees with Irish Open Tournament Director Liam “The Gentleman” Flood, part time poker player (and full time caberet act) Roy “The Boy” Brindley and Irish soccer favourite Tony “Big Cass” Cascarino.

Who will survive through this table will very much depend on which level Brindley decides to start rolling out the rasta poetry!

Annette Obrestad is hoping to impress today to prove she has got what it takes to make it on the European tour.  No matter what happens she can say that she lasted longer than former EPT Dublin Champ Ram Vaswani who has left the building long before the start of the second level.  Probably should have stayed in bed.

Well played Len, loving the semi-bluff with the Ac4c!

48 players made it through the the Day 1A obstacle course with Canadian Mike McDonald leading the field with David Colclough in second place.

Some notable chip counts

Mike McDonald 67k
David Colclough 59k
Andy Black (Ireland) 46k
Johnny Lodden 37k
Andrew Grimason (Ireland) 35k
Noah Boeken 27k
Ian Woodley 24k
Paul Testud 17k
Len Collin (Ireland) 17k
John Conroy (Ireland) 11k

Some players who didn’t make it through the day
Eric Seidel
Barny Boatman
Rob Hollink
Dario Minieri

Day 1B will start at 2pm this afternoon with a slightly bigger field expected to sit down. A lot of the big name regulars on the European Poker Tour have yet to make an appearance so you can expect some fireworks in what threatens to be a pro heavy field on Halloween night in the RDS… stay, as they say, tuned…

That was a very tough day with hardly any hands. I’m through to day two with 17,275 chips. Hopefully things will improve nd I’ll get a few hands. i had to try and do something towards the end of play today. So finding A4c UTG I limped, with the hope of seeing a flop. UTG +1 raised to 1600 - blinds 200 / 400. He was a fairly tight player from france if that isn’t a contradiction i don’t know what is. Gets folded back round to me and I decide to take a risk and call his raise. The flop comes 10 10 4 one of the tens is a club. I know I’m ehind and that a bet on the flop will only lead to a reraise. UTG + 1 makes it 3k the size of bet makes it clear that he hasn’t a ten - So it looks like a good opportunity to call the bet with the idea of making a play later. The turn comes an 8c so now I push all in for circa 9k. I’m hoping that he thinks I’m scared of the flush and that I’m pushing with a set. He goes into the tank for ages. he asks if I have a ten. I don’t think I blink. he eventually folds and I show him the bluff.

It was the only fun I had all night.

Getting down to the last four hands a short stacked scandie states he’s going to push each time. he does so on my BB and SB. i have nothing i can call with. When I get the button he is BB and I peel back 57os. it’s a hand that ideally you’d like to raise on the button or see a flop with. But I know a raise may well be called or re-raised and a limp would be no good. So I play safe and fold. The SB completes and the BB checks. the flop came 68Q a 4 on the turn. Ah well.

On Thursday i’ll have to take my chances. Still all to play for.

The player giving me grief is from Norway [of course] Otto Holt. It seems every time I raise - He calls or re-raises. The last time I had pocket nines pre-flop. At the worst it was a race so I folded. Anytime you raise now it’s 1k, so a fold is hurting. He knows he’s getting to me and I have to say he’s playing his stack very well. now if only I can get get a lock on a hand with him.

I’m on around 16k. One more level to play. it’s been hard - almost un-enjoyable poker. I think my face looks like a smacked arse most of the time.

Chip and a chair.

I’m on 9k at the dinner break. It’s been frustrating to say the least. I haven’t had many good hands. AQ a couple of times, but always in early position and had to fold it a couple of times too facing a re-raise. Got jacks but no callers. Any time I was in position and tried to raise I’d get a reraise it seemed. looks like I’ll have to tighten up even further. There is one player who seems to be running over the table and every time I catch a hand he has something better. It was the same player who caught a straight against me when I had trips. And in the cut off + 1 I looked down to see 10 10. I raised he called. Q92 flop. Two clubs. I bet and he called. A queen came on the turn that lead me to think my tens may be good. I checked. He checked. A club on the river slowed us both down. Check, check and he turned over KQ.

That player is on around 40k now.

I need some luck after the dinner break.