The 2024 Irish Open €1,150 Main Event has been going from strength to strength, and each of the first three starting days surpassed the previous record from one year ago. After Day 1b, the €1,000,000 guarantee was already surpassed and the 1,212 entries by then were more than doubled after a massive 1,459 entries followed on Day 1c.
That left the turbo heat 1d with a level duration of 20 minutes each to put the cherry on top, and another 562 entries brought the total number of entries to 3,233, creating a total prize pool of €3,152,175. That is more than three times the initial guarantee and surpassed the previous record of 2,491 entries by a landslide.
Only 185 hopefuls navigated their way through the minefields and bagged up their chips. As can be expected with the shorter level duration, more players go through but a new overall chip leader likely won’t be found. Gary Whitehead topped the leaderboard with 343,000, still more than 11 starting stacks.
There was already a gap to second-placed Alejandro Vazquez Gomez (282,000) while Patrick Pedersen and Ravi Sheth bagged up an identical 247,000.
Top Ten Chip Counts Day 1d
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count |
| 1 | Gary Whitehead | United Kingdom | 343,000 |
| 2 | Alejandro Vazquez Gomez | Portugal | 282,000 |
| 3 | Patrick Pedersen | Norway | 247,000 |
| 4 | Ravi Sheth | United Kingdom | 247,000 |
| 5 | Rolandas Aglinskas | Lithuania | 235,500 |
| 6 | Hak Mann Lee | Sweden | 233,000 |
| 7 | Mathieu Morelato | Switzerland | 231,500 |
| 8 | Joe Yandle | Northern Ireland | 226,500 |
| 9 | Jorrit Baars | Netherlands | 225,000 |
| 10 | Ali Cetiner | United Kingdom | 203,000 |
Other notables with above average stacks in the final turbo heat include Ian Drake (164,500), Hugo Baudry (163,000), Gavin Sardini (147,500), Ferdia O’Connell (142,000), Michael Lech (136,500), Jonathan Proudfoot (120,000) as well as Samuel Ju (113,500).
They all join the hundreds of survivors of the previous three starting days when the action resumes at noon local time for level 15, which features blinds of 2,000-4,000 and a big blind ante of 4,000. As of Day 2 and for the remainder of the tournament, the level duration will increase to 60 minutes each and the bubble will burst tomorrow.
No longer in contention then will be Marco Biavaschi, Jamie Nixon, Kevin Kupferschmid, Sean Foley, Fabian Bartuschk, Karen Muir, Mark Buckley, and Ronan Sweeney as they all exhausted their final chance to make it through.
You can follow the live updates on the money bubble day on PokerNews and the live stream action will be available on the PokerStars YouTube and Twitch channels.
