PaddyPowerPoker.com Irish Open 2009 -- Day 1

The PaddyPowerPoker.com Irish Open 2009 kicked off yesterday with 701 players all vying for a piece of the €2,240,000 prize pool. Many big names and familiar faces took planes, trains, and automobiles to get to Citywest Hotel and Resort in Dublin for what is known as one of the world’s most prestigious poker events. Dan Harrington, Phil Laak, Jennifer Tilly, Andy Black, Roland de Wolfe, Jesper Hougaard, Juha Helppi, and last year’s champion Neil Channing were just some of the many pros battling for the €600,000 top prize on day 1.

Many of the day’s star players ended up spending more time at the bar than in the poker room, as bustouts were aplenty, including Tilly, de Wolfe, and Hougaard. One of the biggest surprises occurred in the very first level, with Brian Townsend (pictured right) seated comfortably at the feature table, ready for a long day. His seat wasn't even warm however when he hit the rail. The Internet sensation had flopped a set of fives, and Richard Ashby had flopped a set of his own — aces.

The feature table was unlucky for many others, including another ‘set’ disaster for Donnacha O’Dea, who called Dan Harrington’s all in with a board reading Q J x. O’Dea revealed pocket jacks for the middle set, but Harrington pipped him to the post, unveiling pocket queens for top set. Harrington doubled up, and O’Dea was crippled. Needless to say, he didn’t last the day.

Jamie Gold had a great day, finishing up with around 39,100 chips, to the expense of many players along the way. His friend, and Irish poker legend, Liam Flood was one of Gold’s victims when he ran pocket kings into Gold’s A-Q and Gold hit an ace on the flop. Two other big Irish names, Ciaran O’Leary and Marty Smyth also didn’t last the day. O’Leary’s final hand unluckily saw his kings beaten by aces.

Michael Greco busted out with two minutes to spare at the end of the day. He was sitting on the feature table with his good friend Jamie Gold, and needless to say the banter was bountiful. Gold appears to be in flying form for this tournament, he ended the day at the upper end of the leader board, as did Paul Zimbler. Check out Card Player’s Tournament Trail Q and A with World Series of Poker champion Gold.

There were some larger stacks being counted and bagged at the end of the day, but official chip counts are yet to be released. As day 2 approaches, 311 players prepare for eight levels of swings, misses, lucky rivers, and bad beats, and this can all be followed via Paddy Power Poker’s live stream and blog at IrishPokerOpen.com.

Related Articles

WSOP: Eldridge Wins $25k PLO For $2.2 Million

Obst Wins 2nd Career Bracelet After Return To Poker

Nick Guagenti Captures His Second WSOP Bracelet

Most Viewed Articles