It’s a wrap on the poker section of the Firaldo Irish Open Leaderboard and four players are now through to the second part of the contest which is all about the craic. Well done David Lappin, Ferdia O’Connell, Jim Reid and PokerStars Team Pro Spraggy! However, as Firaldo told me just now: “Much like the real world, there is no advantage to being good at cards” so – points-wise – that means all four finalists will be starting from scratch. The contest resumes tomorrow (Saturday) when we head to the Craic Den at some point for a whole set of new challenges: drinking Guinness (see T&Cs*), betting on a horse race and getting judged/panned in Saturday night’s karaoke.
* Split the G – without looking, drink part of a pint of Guinness down to the top of the spur on the capital letter G.
The Firaldo Irish Open Leaderboard is a unique combo of poker tournaments and three NON-poker events in a competitive format. The overall winner gets a fab trophy AND a PokerStars Silver Power Pass worth $2,500 PLUS the chance to either win two hours’ coaching (poker presumably) from Firaldo OR get your Sunday bar tab covered PLUS you get the Leaderboard named after you for Irish Open 2025. Also-rans may also get prizes as Firaldo has been running around the venue scrounging swag from event sponsors.
Points after the poker were as follows:
David Lappin 10150
Ferdia O’Connell 7940
Jim Reid 4720
Benjamin Spragg 6650
Marc MacDonnell 3000
Ian Drake 2480
Jamie Nixon 1720
Glen Keogh 1510
Roland Boothby 1455
Kevin O’Donnell 570
Katie Swift 545
