Ko Punch! David Dongwoo Ko Takes Down €350 Irish Open HORSE Championship

David Dongwoo Ko has added to his impressive resume by taking down the €350 Irish Open Horse Championship for €11,000. Originally from South Korea, but now calls Canada home, Ko has now pushed past the $900,000 mark in lifetime earnings, with his first recorded cash only coming in December 2022.

It only took a handful of hands of heads-up to defeat Zexhuan Huan. The winning moment came when Huan’s stack was demolished to less than half a big blind and Ko’s pocket sixes were enough to secure the win and add another trophy to his collection which includes two WSOPC rings, a WPT title and a second-place finish at the 2024 EPT Barcelona.

Ko admitted that he wanted to get the job done before razz appeared on the game rotation as it was a ‘death game’ and only liked to play it when he was short-stacked. Ko played with ruthless aggression throughout the final day which his opponents struggled to cope with.

This is Ko’s first time at the Irish Open and has now set his sights on the Main Event. A victory would see him smash past the seven-figure mark of lifetime earnings.

Final Day Action

Play got off to a frenetic pace at the start of the day with four quick eliminations of Siddharth Sudunagunta, Bouwe Claushuis, Michel Bedos and Pokerstars Ambassador Sebastian ‘peace&loove’ Huber.

One of the most controversial hands of the day was a stud hand between Evert Bos and Danielle Noja. Bos was all in preflop with split tens against Noja’s split eights. The dealer dealt to the river before it was spotted that there was no burn cards on any of the streets.

The floor was called and the tournament director ruled that as it wasn’t highlighted on previous streets the hands that are on the felt would remain the same. As a result Bos took down the pot despite the appeals from Noja.

In the grand scheme of things it didn’t matter as a couple of hands later, Noja eliminated Bos and parity was restored. Soon after Kevin Fitzpatrick and Wantao Tang crashed out in tenth and ninth place respectively.

At this point the remaining eight players reached the final table and Noja showed some miraculous ladder-climbing abilities. The Australian went from 300,000 chips down to 5,000 which was less than a big blind at the time. In six successive hand he managed to spin his solitary chip into 120,000.

His luck soon ran out after a hand with Jay Harwood who made nut-nut in Omaha-8 to send Noja out in eighth place. Harwood went on a mini heater and knocked out Lin Chen in seventh place when he made a better two pair making tens and nines against eights and sevens.

After reaching his high water mark of the tournament, Harwood was the next to exit. He could only muster a pair of jacks in stud-8 which was bested by eventual winner Ko with a pair of aces and a qualifying low.

Ko then went on an aggressive rampage and steamrolled everyone in sight. In stud-8 Ko KO’d Alexander Rivzi in fifth place when he scooped a three-way pot with trip threes and left Swiss player Andreas Froehli super short. Ko dispatched Froehli in a Holdem hand not too long after.

Greek player Georgios Diamantidis tried to fight fire with fire against Ko, but it was to no avail as he busted out in third place. The Canadian wouldn’t be denied and lifted the Irish Open HORSE Championship and took home €11,000.