Ladbrokes Irish Poker Festival Breaks Record832 Players for Main Event is Largest Field Ever Assembled for European Ranking Event |
|
The Ladbrokes.com Irish Poker Festival, held at the weekend in Killarney, Ireland saw a record-breaking 832 players take to the felt for the €500 + €50 buy-in main event in what was the largest field ever assembled for a European ranking tournament. Cork man Jimmy McSweeney triumphed over the field and collected the €100,000 first prize.
Capacity for the event was raised from 625 to 750 one week before hand but the organisers’ clever use of the alternates system meant no-one was disappointed and the colossal field generated a prize pool of €416,000, well in excess of the €250,000 guaranteed by Ladbrokes.com
Bryan Coleman, Irish Territory Manager at Ladbrokes.com said, “We’re absolutely delighted with the turnout and would like to thank all the players who made this festival such a success. Our heartiest congratulations go to Jimmy who is a worthy champion and we’re sure we’ll be hearing more of him in the future.”
The field saw many well know Irish poker faces participate including Padraig Parkinson, Roy Brindley, Scott Gray, and Marty Smyth but it was McSweeney who outplayed the field. In the final hand of the evening, holding a significant chip lead, he called Andrew Roberts all in showing 6-6 to Roberts A-9. The board blanked Roberts and he collected the €65,000 second prize.
The €270 + €30 side event, which attracted 391 entries creating a prize pool of €105,000 was won by John Lavin from Mayo who took down the €25,000 first prize. The festival was filmed for documentary broadcast on Irish terrestrial TV station TG4 and for subsequent distribution to networks around the world. A web stream of the documentary will also be available on Ladbrokespoker.com. The event will return next year.
Copyright © 2001-2024
CardPlayer.com. All rights reserved.
