2011 Irish Winter Poker Festival Main Event - Day 1

The PaddyPowerPoker.com Irish Winter Festival €1000 + €100 main event kicked off yesterday attracting a total of 395 players to create a prize pool of just under €400,000.

The field included 135 Sole Survivors who will fight until only one qualifier remains and earns him/herself a €20,000 package made up of 50 percent cash and 50 percent tournament buy-ins (on top of money won in the main event itself).

Of the 121 remaining players entering day 2 is Irish Open champion and Paddy Power pro Niall Smyth. Smyth is seventh in chips with 114,300. Leading the pack however is David Rudling with 176,200.

Here is the top 10 in chips at end of day 1:

David Rudling 176,200
John Keown 126,900
Mark Reilly 125,200
Matej Kokalj 122,200
Raigo Aasmaa 122,000
Philip Peters 116,900
Niall Smyth 114,300
David Gerald 108,800
Michael Mazilu 108,300
Ciaran Taggart 100,700

Some notables knocked out of the first of three days of play were Paddy Power Poker pro and November Niner Eoghan O’Dea (who now flies to Vegas in preparation for the biggest poker moment of his life), Neil Channing, John O’Shea, Nicky Power, and Padraig Parkinson.

Main event play resumes today at 2 p.m. with level 11 and blinds of 600-1,200 with a 100 ante. Action is set to continue until a final table of eight is found. You can follow all the highs and lows via Paddy Power Poker’s live stream.

As well as plenty of nightly entertainment, there is a whole heap of side events taking place. Aside from day 2 of the main event, today will see a €400+ €40 no-limit hold’em freezeout at 3 p.m., a €200 + €20 pot-limit Omaha event at 6 p.m., and a €100 + €10 Blind Mans Bluff World Championship at 8 p.m..

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