Andrew Hulme’s stack had been slowly whittled down in a seemingly endless series of small hands until he had little more than a million or two left. Finally the lot went in with Ad 5s against Cosmin Chis’ Ah 3h, and Hulme was fortunate to actually double up rather than chop when both a three and a five fell on the flop – for posterity, the board read Ts 3d 5h Kc Js.
Still short-stacked even after the double up, Hulme got it in again a hand or two later, this time with As 2s against Chis’ Qs Jh. The board rolled out 5s 9c Qc 8c Qh, and to the disappointment of his many railers, Hulme had to settle for second. Conversely, Chis’ railers were quite pleased about the whole thing – their boy is now the 2023 Irish Open €3k High Roller champion!