What started with only a handful of tables on the balcony overlooking the vast tournament area of the Royal Dublin Society turned into a massive field for Event #61 High Roller 8-Max. The very same tournament at the Irish Open with a price tag of €3,000 drew a field of 157 entries one year ago and obliterated that figure with a total of 248 entries soared way beyond that to generate a prize pool of €664,950.
Upon completion of 13 levels, PokerStars ambassador and live events advisor Kenny Hallaert bagged the most chips with 849,000 and aims to keep his perfect record during the Irish Open in Dublin, as the only tournament he entered earlier in the series came with a victory in the €5,000 NLH High Roller 8-Max for €140,674.
The Belgian entered the day with a bang when he scored an immediate double with pocket aces against the ace-king suited of Alexander Norden, though, he had to dodge another heart after two of them appeared on the flop. Hallaert himself made more flushes and knockouts thereafter to steadily build his stack.
Hallaert surpassed Steven Tool during the final stages and the Estonian narrowly missed a rare feat, as he was the chip leader during each of the three prior breaks on Day 1 of this tournament. Ultimately, Tool ended up with a very respectable 801,000 and the top two on the leaderboard have already put quite a gap between themselves and the rest of the field.
Day 1 big stack Steven Tool
Third on the leaderboard is Judy Whitlow (476,000) followed by Italy’s Giuseppe Dedoni with a stack of 457,000 who himself is narrowly ahead of Nathan Rao (450,000), fellow countryman Gabriele Re (414,000) and David Wintersberger (408,000). Dedoni is chasing a second trophy during the festival after taking down Event #31 NLH 8-Max a couple of days ago for a new record-best score of €66,500.
Further notables to advance with healthy stacks include Jamie Dwan (395,000), Dinesh Alt (317,000), Cathal Shine (295,000), Roope Tarmi (264,000), and Guillermo Gordo Cifuentes (240,000).
PokerStars ambassador Benjamin Spragg advanced with 220,000 while his better half Marle Spragg lost a flip for half her stack late in the day and bowed out soon after. Others to have their work cut out for tomorrow are Stephen Song (143,000), Nikolai Mamut (133,000), Tobias Peters (115,000), Super High Roller winner Robbie Toan (108,000),
Defending champion Samuel Ju is still in contention to defend his win, but he had to fire three bullets to advance with more chips than he paid for – 218,000.
Defending champion Samuel Ju
The second and final day of the tournament is scheduled to recommence at noon local time with level 14, which features blinds of 3,000-6,000 and a big blind ante of 6,000. The average will be just shy of 39 big blinds and with a level duration of 40 minutes each, it won’t take very long to get close to the money bubble. Only the top 39 spots are paid at least €5,700 for their efforts, while the winner can look forward to a top prize of €140,450.
