Former doctor Randy Hagen has only been to the Irish Open once before but is already a self-confessed superfan! He arrived at this year’s event wearing a head-to-toe Irish Open-themed Gucci suit that he had specially made for this year’s event.
He already looks like a solid contender to win the 70s theme fancy dress competition we’re having at the Players Party on the penultimate night of the festival. A bit premature perhaps (given that we’re only on Day 1 of the festival) but hats off to Randy for getting an early start on proceedings.
Randy – @rjpoker1110 on Instagram – first came to the Irish Open because his daughter is studying veterinary science at University College Dublin. She graduates in June but Randy says he’ll be back every year for the Irish Open. He said: “It’s the only poker festival in the world where you play, don’t win – but still can’t wait to come back again next time!”
The 53-year-old from South Jersey is thriving in today’s €350 buy-in Big O, with around 150,000 last time we checked. Our indefatigable reporter Christin Zetsche is covering that event so pop over here for all the live updates. And here are some more pics!
The Big O Championship started at 2pm today and late reg just past 7pm, with118 total entries and a €35,483 prize pool. The winner will get €9,070 with 17 players paid. Irish Open ambassador Chris Dowling claimed the trophy last year and a cash prize of €6,850. For No-Limit Hold’em players, the game may very well be known as “Big Oh No” because there are five cards instead of two and this split pot variant is summed up as Five-Card Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo.
Among those taking part today were Canada’s June Jenkins, Finnish high stakes legend Ilari ‘Ziigmund’ Sahamies (who immediately ordered an on-table massage to kick off the tournament), last year’s 8-Game Champion Bill Mawer, last year’s OFC champion Riku Koivurinne, Michael Muldoon, PokerNews reporter Frank Visser, Matthijs Van Den Broek, BAD Poker podcast host Chris Bean, Osman Mustanoglu plus Britain’s Lee Horton, Vikrum Mehta and Peter Wigglesworth.
