The bubble has just burst here at the 2008 paddypowerpoker.com Irish Poker Open. The unfortunate bubble boy was Canadian Chris Peddigrew. He was all in for his 10,400 chip stack with

against his opponent’s

Peddigrew lost the race on a board of:

…and goes out in 73rd place, but takes the news in good spirits, smiling all the way to the end. Every player in the room will now earn at least €4500, all the way up to the €801,400 first prize.

As I was walking back to the blogger’s area, I saw about seven and a half million people crowded around Table 1. There was a three way all in, with the following hands:

Pádraig Parkinson: (76,200 chips)

Tyler Reiman: (90k chips)

John Juliano (77,100 chips)

Pre-flop action remains a mystery, but the board ran out:

…and Pádraig Parkinson and Tyler Reiman split Juliano’s stack. We’re about to burst the bubble here at the Irish Poker Open, and we’re currently playing hand-for-hand, so you could cut the tension in the room with a knife.

There are four players left in this year’s paddypowerpoker.com promotion ”Paddy First”. The player who lasts the longest will win free entry to next year’s tournament. They are as follows:

Annette O Carroll 34,000

Andrew Cowan 50,000

Simon Hennessy 40,000

The blinds now stand at 2000/4000 with a running ante of 300. The average stack is 87,800

Eamon Davis 52,000

We have 75 players remaining and only 72 will be getting paid. Thus, we will have 3 crying, howling poker players about to be eliminated in the next hour.

Waterfords interest in the 1.5k game has almost ended after Jasper was eliminated by straight over straight. Unlucky Jasper, suppose there’s no chance of a taxi home?

Tommy Walsh still features but will need to make some moves to solidify his position. 

Latest chip counts from the 2008 paddypowerpoker.com Irish Open.

Knut Rysstad 92,000

Julian Thew 154,000

Mick McCloskey 48,000

Don Fagan 86,000

Phil Starrs 94,000

John Conroy 145,000

Sorel Mizzi 155,000

Surinder Sunar 18,000

John Keown 84,000

George Geary 50,000

Kieren Small 48,000

Rumit Sumiya 84,000

Dave Masters 141,000

Andy Grimasson 62,000

Donal Norton 250,000

Neil Channing 112,000

Colin King 41,000

English legend Surinder Sunar has just knocked out a player here at the Irish Poker Open. David Felton moved his 13,900 stack in from MP, and the action folded around to Sunar in the BB. After a session in the tank for a few minutes, he made the call for a not inconsiderable portion of his stack. Felton sheepishly turned over the

…Surinder laughed and said “well, you’ve got two overcards”, before he showed his

Sunar won the race on a board of:

…and adds some more chips to his stack. He’s been successfully keeping his head above water since Day 1, and he’s always a force to be reckoned with over the green felt.

Abel Meijberg just lost the biggest pot of the day - over 250,000 - to Donal Norton.
Nobody quite knows how or why but the dominant Meijberg was in the hand with . The flop of saw unexpected fireworks flying. Both players shovelled all their chips into the centre and it became clear why when Norton pinged up for the nut flush draw.

Both must have been terrified to see the turn but it kept Meijberg ahead, barely, falling . Norton hit one of his 2,000 outs on the river though to put a ginormous swing in the fortunes of both.
With a further 16 players to go before the cash bubble, what a disaster for Abel Meijberg if he falls short. He will probably never play the again in his life. Mind you, he probably never should have in the first place… 

EPT Copenhagen champion Soren Jensen has been eliminated from the 2008 Irish Open. As has become the norm in the last few hours, all the money went in before the flop:

Jensen:

Opponent:

The board isn’t kind to Jensen:

…and he leaves the tournament area here at the Citywest Hotel in Dublin.

American Tim Barany has just doubled up. All the chips went in before the flop, with Barany in excellent shape to survive.

Barany:

Peter Mansson:

The board comes down favourably for Barany:

…and he doubles up to around 80,000.