Mixed Game Magician Bill Mawer Wins The Irish Open Mixed 8-game Championships!

Mixed game specialist Bill Mawer has won the Irish Open Mixed 8-game Championship for €11,980. The Englishman outlasted 16 other players who came back on the final day to win the biggest recorded prize of his playing career at the Royal Dublin Society.

Mawer, who regularly plays cash Omaha and mixed games in London sealed the deal in Omaha Hi-Lo after hitting quad sixes to dispatch German Felix Marutz in a back-and-forth heads-up battle which lasted for over an hour which saw the chip lead flip numerous times.

Speaking to Phil ‘The Tower’ Heald after his victory he credited his victory to his learning ground of playing mixed games against the likes of Jon Shoreman and Ali Sarkeshik and other “thugs” over twenty years ago.

Seventeen players returned on the final day and it began with confusion. The first game on the rotation was Limit Hold’em and Namir Mohamed attempted to move all-in preflop and on the flop while having a meaty stack. He eventually won the pot after a confused Marius Kalfelis folded on the turn.

By the end of the first level of the day, four players were sent to the cash desk with Ethan Bennett, Stanislav Anufriiev, Zexuan Huan and Festival founder Martin ‘Franke’ von Zweigbergk departing, with the latter enjoying a ‘decaf tea’.

The field soon thinned out to eight players with five quick eliminations including overnight chip leader Dieter Kuehnl who clashed with Marutz in pot-limit Omaha for a near 2,000,000 pot. Simon Brooke bubbled the final table after his eight-smooth was cracked by Kyriakos Papadopolous when the Greek made a seven-six-five on the final draw in 2-7 triple draw.

Zhong Liao was the first to exit the final table in seventh place after pairing up on his final draw in 2-7 triple draw, which set up an enthralling two hours of mixed game poker where none of the six players busted despite at one point the average stack only had 3.5 big bets.

It wasn’t for the want of trying as virtually every player was at risk at some point. The levee finally broke when the experienced Greek poker professional Papadopolous fell in 6th place when he couldn’t outdraw Mawer in 2-7 triple draw.

Ben Sweet came into the final table with 80,000 chips and rallied up to 1,500,000 at his high watermark, despite this he finished in 5th place after two coolers in quick succession, with the worst getting his pocket aces cracked in limit holdem against Marutz who flopped the nut straight.

Kalfelis and Yannick Jobin departed in quick fashion which setup an epic heads-up battle between Mawer and Marutz. Mawer came into heads-up with a four-to-one chip lead, but the balance soon reversed when Marutz got the better in a 2-7 triple draw to give him the four-to-one advantage.

This did not deter Mawer who clawed his way back with pocket queens in no-limit holdem when he flopped the boat to make it even in the chip counts. Mawer cemented his victory after flopping quad sixes in Omaha Hi-lo and said he will be celebrating with a couple of Guinness’s and a gentle 2-5 session of PLO! From everyone at the Irish Open congratulations Bill!