Tonkaaaa secures first live event title in €5k High Roller
Congrats to PokerStars Team Pro Parker “tonkaaaa” Talbot for navigating through a field of 111 entries in front of a massive rail to win the two-day €5,000 Luxon Pay High Roller 8-Max for €134,279.
Despite having more than $1.6 million in live tournament cashes, Talbot – remarkably – had never won a live event and was royally ribbed about this by his fellow PokerStars ambassadors and high-stakes poker mates.
Talbot came into last night’s final table as one of the short stacks but witnessed both smaller stacks and bigger stacks hit the rail until he faced off against super satellite qualifier Fergal O’Cathan heads-up. At that point, he was facing a large chip deficit but he won an early flip which gave him the momentum and took him through to his first live poker title.
O’Cathan only had $10,000 in live tournament cashes to his name before yesterday but, after a heater in the cash games on Tuesday evening, decided to join the €1,150 High Roller satellite on a whim.
A total of 111 players entered the event generating a total prize pool of €514,069. O’Cathan got €86,635 for his runner-up finish while EPT Prague champion Padraig O’Neill was third for €61,885. Bert @girafganger7 Stevens, who won the biggest WSOP Online Main Event ever last October for $2.7 million, was sixth for €28,165.
Among the 15 players who also cashed in the elite event were Keith Johnson, Conor Beresford and Ankit Ahuja.
Read the full report here.
Congrats to Heads-Up champion Alex Romero
Spanish PokerStars Live commentator Alex Romero won his first ever trophy yesterday when he beat reigning Main Event champ David Docherty in the Heads-Up final for €5,925. 64 entries with eight paid from the €19,344 prize pool.
Michael Havavka wins America’s Cup
Congrats to Michael Havavka from Slovakia who took down yesterday’s massive €350 America’s Cup for €29,504. There were an astonishing 495 entries in the event creating a €149,614 prize pool with 71 players getting paid. David Lappin was fourth for €10,150, Curtis Thorpe 10th for €2,305 and Niall (he’s in everything) Farrell 14th for €1,670, Hendon Mob’s Roland Boothby was 16th for €1,455.
Also in the money were Daryl McAleenan, Friend of the Irish Open Tim Silman, Katie Swift and Rory Jennings from The Club. Full report is here.
Emad Aghasi leads €500k guaranteed Mini Irish Open
Just 29 players got through Day 1c of the €500k guaranteed Mini Irish Open last night from a starting field of 383 entries. Ireland’s Emad Aghasi was chip leader at the end of play with 765,000 – making him the overall chip leader at present. It’s his first cash at the Irish Open. Also through – Mick Graydon and Heads-Up Champion Alex Romero.
8% of the field get through – and get paid each day. One of the bonuses of the Mini is that the affordable buy-in and unlimited rebuys mean players can fire multiple bullets in their bid to become an Irish Open Festival Champion. Last year, this event was the biggest side event that the Irish Open had ever hosted with Belgium’s Simon Nickmans winning €17,590 after besting a 421-entry field. The total prize pool was €90,305.
– Day 1a: 302 entries – 23 through to the final
– Day 1b: 377 entries – 30 through to the final
– Day 1c: 383 entries – 29 through to the final
Click here for yesterday’s updates. The action resumes for Day 1d at 6pm tonight.
Day 2 of the €350 Irish Open PLO 6-Max
Jie Zheng is leading for Day 2 of the €350 Irish Open PLO 6-Max with 473,000, just ahead of Richard Ashby. There are 44 players left of the 283-strong starting field. That makes €85,537 in the prize pool, and €17,300 for the winner.
