Poker Blog - Irish Open 2009

Here are a list of the Paddy Power Poker Pro final table players, listed by chip count (remember, they started this final online last week, the tournament was paused once the field got down to the final eight, who play it out tonight live here in Citywest):

- Kevin Corcoran (Dublin, Ireland) - tallsid - 74,700

- Derek Thorpe (Newbridge, Ireland) - Funky21 - 46,900

- Glen Ashworth (Bolton, UK) - 22number22 - 43,200

- Tobias Karlsson (Stockholm, Sweden) - AlexiusTT - 36,400

- Nick Harrington (Essex, UK) - nh6262 - 26,600

- Donal Norton (Toronto, Canada) - TubridyTonight - 13,800

- Paul Mulvihill (Dublin, Ireland) - leedsutd22 - 12,600

- Phil Coyle (Naas, Ireland) - cockylocky - 10,700

These players have proven themselves some of paddypowerpoker.com’s best - good luck to all of them!

Well, we haven’t had one of these for a while!  I’ve got two Bounty Hunter $10 + $1 tokens up for grabs - this is one of our most popular weekly PPP-exclusive tournaments, with $100 to be won if you knock out the bounty and a $100 bonus when you play as the bounty the following week!  If you haven’t played it, put it in your calendar, every Wednesday evening @ 8pm!

Here we go…

Head of Poker at paddypowerpoker.com, Eric Booth, shows something to Kara Scott (2nd placed finisher at the Irish Open 2009) that surprises her - what do you think she is about to say?!

Remember to leave your screen name so I can credit you with the token if you win - good luck!

Don’t forget that you have your very 1st chance to win a ticket to our next huge live event, the Irish Winter Festival, this Sunday evening @ 7.50pm in a $200 + $15 ticket only qualifier.  There are already 9 players registered so there may be multiple tickets on offer - get in there!

A selection from Day 2 of this year’s Irish Open.  Starting off with another nice one of Kara - all the photographers were in love with her and took LOADS of photos! :)  No-one is complaining though…

Phil Laak & Ken Doherty

On the feature table!  We all wished we could have been there - maybe next year?

Some photos from Day 1 for you to chew over, will have some from the other days later…can’t believe it’s all over for another year!  I have a feeling that Christer Johansson will be a very worthy champion and that we’ll hear a lot more from Kara and the other final tablists over the next 12 months.

Albert’s large gorilla chip protector always amuses me. I have little doubt the man himself will be beating his chest like a magnificent primate if he manages to pocket the hefty first prize. He has a long way to got to be fair,but the tide seems to be with him and he has jumped from 30k to just over 70k in the last hour.

Adam Fallon is gone but has every reason to feel proud of the way he played today. His exit hand was a brutal example of how sometimes poker refuses to reward terrific play.The button raised and Adam holding A9 in the big blind decided his hand was good and made it 4k. “I had planned to call a shove but when he moved in I wanted to think the hand through”. After a long dwell and deciding his opponents range was too wide to consider folding he made the call with A9. He was in great shape against A7 with the ace of diamonds but that soon changed when the flop came down 456 all diamonds. Adam could not fade a diamond as a pointy queen on the river sent him to the rail.

Michael O’Sullivan got off to a slow start but has managed to find a double up when his QQ held v AK. Kieran “Flipper” Walsh found himself facing the same race but was not so lucky and is gone. Adam Fallon found himself all in with AJ V KK but found not one but two aces and is now on over 20k.Phil Laak is making steady progress as is Donal Norton who now has over 30k.

Ciaran O’Leary was delighted to look down at KK. He duely raised. He was even more pleased when Greg Hunt reraised and he was able to get his 8k stack in the middle. Unfortunatley Greg had just the medicine for his kings,calmly tabling AA. The flop offered no back door flush or straight possibilities and the turn and river were equally unhelpfull and Ciaran finds himself our latest casualty.

The players have left on the first break of the tournament. The blinds stand at 75-150 and the average stack is just over 10,400. We have already lost over twenty players already.

The first few hours of reporting invariably involve reporting hands of glacial propotions. Folding a set is never easy which is why Maurice Byrne looked so tormented when facing an all in raise of over 7k from Frank Power. On a boards that read J 9 6 it was always going to be very difficult to fold 66 and eventually Maurice made the call only to be shown the hand he seemed to fear the most, a set of nines. No miracle and Frank becomes one of our early leaders with over 20k.