This Week in Poker: Poker Tournament News Apr. 11-17

Check out CardPlayer.com every Friday for a weekly wrap-up of the news from the live poker tournament trail.

Card Player Player of the Year Update

1: Poorya Nazari — 3,000
2: Jude Ainsworth — 2,840
3: Cornel Cimpan — 2,730
4: Anthony Gregg — 2,500
5: Steve Brecher — 2,340
6: Chris Moore — 2,110
7: Kathy Liebert — 2,100
8: Benjamin Spindler — 2,000
8: Binh Nguyen — 2,000
8: Niklas Heinecker — 2,000

This Week in Poker

PaddyPowerPoker.com Irish Open

Author's Note: Tournament report courtesy of Brendan Murray

The €3,500 buy-in PaddyPowerPoker.com Irish Open 2009 was another fine example of how live poker in Europe remains resilient in the current economic climate with 701 players taking to the felt in Dublin over the weekend, beating last year's 668 and creating a prize pool of over €2.2 million. When the dust settled and the final table was set, it looked like this:

Seat 1: Lee Brooke-Pearce — 998,000
Seat 2: Andrew Pantling — 2,286,000
Seat 3: Andrew Bradshaw — 351,000
Seat 4: Kara Scott (pictured right) — 701,000
Seat 5: William Kassouf — 569,000
Seat 6: Bradley Verburg — 217,000
Seat 7: Christer Johansson — 906,000
Seat 8: Atanas Gueorguiev — 990,000

Christer Johansson Wins the 2009 Irish Open (€600,000)

At the beginning of heads-up play, the chip counts were:

Kara Scott: 3.7 million
Christer Johansson (pictured right): 3.3 million

The two-player battle saw the Swede grind Kara Scott down until he had most of the chips in play. Then, in hand No. 13 of the match, it was all over.
 
Kara raised to 140,000, and Christer called.

Flop: K J 7

Kara bet 175,000, Christer then pushed a stack forward and raised to 575,000 total. Kara moved all in for 2.5 million. It was another 1.9 million for Christer to call, and he did.

Kara: J-9
Christer: K-3
Turn: Q
River: A

The popular Kara Scott was eliminated in second place, and Christer Johansson won the 2009 Paddy Power Poker Irish Poker Open.

Full Final-Table Recap

PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker Main Event

Author's Note: Tournament report courtesy of Julio Rodriguez

The high-stakes tournament featured a prize pool of $5,020,000 thanks to a stacked field of 502. Only 14 players remained after day one, two of which were Online Player of the Year contenders.

The chip leader coming into the day, Jonathan "xxjondxx" Delong, was eliminated just short of the final table in 11th place by Jude "j.thaddeus" Ainsworth. Delong is currently in 12th place in the OPOY rankings, but would have moved into third had he won this event.

The other OPOY candidate, Chris "Moorman1" Moorman, got it in with the nut-flush draw, but the turn and river bricked, allowing Steven "$teveyMoney" Merrifield's A-10 high to take the pot and bust Moorman in eighth place. The final-table finish was enough to move Moorman into third place in the OPOY rankings.

Jon "PearlJammer" Turner (pictured right) held the lead at one point six-handed, but he lost a lot of momentum to Ainsworth. Finally, he was eliminated in third place when his K-Q failed to hit against Niklas "ragen70" Heinecker's A-10. Going into heads-up play, j.thaddeus held a more than 3-1 chip lead.

On the final hand, ragen70 made a move with a rivered pair of sixes but ran into Ainsworth and his runner-runner club flush.

Selected Tournament Results:

PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker Main Event

Buy-in: $10,000
Number of Entries: 502
Total Prize Pool: $5,020,000
First-Place Prize: $963,338
Places Paid: 54

Final-Table Results:

1: Jude Ainsworth — $963,338 and 2,400 POY points
2: Niklas Heinecker — $715,350 and 2,000 POY points
3: Jon Turner — $527,100 and 1,600 POY points
4: Jesse Martin — $401,600 and 1,200 POY points
5: Steven Merrifield — $281,120 and 1,000 POY points
6: Chowdahhead4* — $213,350
7: Derric Haynie — $163,350 and 600 POY points
8: Chris Moorman — $112,950 and 400 POY points
9: Francis Cagney — $83,332 and 200 POY points

*Denotes that no real name was reported so no POY points are awarded.

Looking Ahead

Card Player Live Coverage Event — Five-Star World Poker Classic

Event Schedule
Event Preview

Card Player Live Coverage Event — PokerStars European Poker Tour San Remo

Event Schedule
Event Preview

Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza II

Event Schedule
Event Preview

World Series of Poker Circuit – Caesars Las Vegas

Event Schedule
Event Preview

PokerStars LAPT — Mar Del Plata, Argentina

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America’s Poker Classic

Event Schedule

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