Poker Blog - Irish Open 2009 - Day 1

The final whistle has blown, and 311 have survived the opening day with an average stack of 22,400.

I believe chip counts will be emailed when compiled, at which point we’ll publish the full list.

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.

Gary Clarke was also a last level casualty, his A-J no match for the T-8 of Sean Donaslon (pot committed after three-betting preflop), the latter making a straight to take both the pot, and the scalp.

Roland De Wolfe was a late departure. He was bashed down to 5 or 6,000 with queens versus aces, and then pushed with A-6 from the small blind and was picked off by pocket tens.

Okay, here goes…

Alex Gibb — table broke
Albert Kenny — 26,900
Martin Starzko — missing in action (mia)
Dave Penly — 38,500
James Lowery — mia
Simon Marks — 45,300
Robert Lawson — mia
Donnacha O’Dea — out
Eoghan O’Dea — out
Kevin O’Connell — table broke
Nick Heathers — 21,600
Shane Harker — table broke
Diego Vanegas — 17,500
John Larkin — 62,800
Daniel Flower — 16,200
Adam Fallon — table broke
Maxime Lessard — mia
Matt Dobbins — mia
David Kerins — table broke
Chris Roadknight — table broke
Paul Campbell — covering player card, but if in 40s with gray hair, has 17,900
Vivion Hayden — not listed
Niall Smyth — just spotted pushing all in for 13,000 on 2s-7d-3s-Tc, survived, must have 20,000+
Gary Clarke — out
Devilfish — didn’t play
Roland De Wolfe — out
Jeff Shine — 14,800
Michael Ashton — table broke
Richard Herbert — mia

Andrew Pantling looks to be our chipleader with less than twenty minutes left to play on day one.He has a huge stack,almost fives times the average and will surely be the first player to break the 100k mark. His table is pefect for a fearless big stack at this stage with small to medium stacks reluctant to get knocked out so close to day two,a fact the American is taking advantage of to perfection at the moment.

I just spoke to Jason Tompkins who’s sitting pretty on just over 30k. He won the majority of his chips after being check-minraised on the river meaning he would have been left with only 1500 should he call and be wrong. He held an overpair in the shape of the beautiful ladies but being check minraised is always sick, especially on the river after the board pairing! He made the call and turned out to be good. Even though he has last years winner Neill Channing sitting a few seats to his left, he isn’t too worried. Although this may in part be due to Neill being rendered somewhat harmless by the masseuse who’s been seeing to him for the past two hours!

While talking to Jason, I caught a glimpse of Kara Scott pushing her shortstack of around 6k into the middle from the SB. She found no callers and I’m sure she’s happy with the blinds and antes but will have to go into overdrive if she want to sleep well tonight!

Simon Marks is riding high with circa 45,000 in chips. He just eliminated an opponent with Kh-Qh versus 9c-9h all in preflop with an ensuing Ks-5d-Jc-7h-4c board.

Persaud was recently spotted chatting to Neil Channing, and he was reflective in defeat. “I had kings versus A-K, ace hit the flop. 40k pot,” he shrugged, as if to say ‘it happens’.

The stunning Kara Scott has just doubled through, much to her relief, with A-9 suited versus jacks, the dealer waiting until the very end to keep the EPT presenter in with a dramatic Q-Q-5-9-A. Keep the eye candy in I say!