After a few knockouts, the heads up was to be fought by Akenhead played and Juha Helppi. Akenhead evened the chipstacks up quickly, and continued his aggression by taking down some good pots. In the last hand of the tournament Akenhead was dealt pocket tens and he was up against Helppi’s sixes. Akenhead opened and Helppi Jammed. The flop came an interesting 5; 4; 3 giving Helppi some more good outs, but the turn and the river sealed the deal for Helppi, rolling off a king and an Ace.

Akenhead’s is running super hot this year, with a grand profit of $1,300,000 from the World Series of Poker (WSOP) this year as well as the World Series of Poker Europe (WOSPE).

Having turned professional only three years ago, Akenhead has already amassed winnings of in excess of $2,600,000.

For his second place, Helppi collected $250,000.

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What makes the Irish Open so special?

Firstly, the quality of the field. Most of the leading European poker players take part in the event, always joined by a number of Americans. Last year these included Dan Harrington and Mike Sexton. This year stars such as poker icons Doyle Brunson and Sorel Mizzi led the US invasion.

Secondly, there are the Irish poker players themselves – led by the experienced and entertaining event director Liam Flood, they are hospitable, good fun and they just love their poker (and their beer!)!

Thirdly, everyone who is playing stays in the same place so that, once the playing stops, the fun really starts – this is one of poker’s most social occasions. Where else can a satellite player rub shoulders with Roland De Wolfe, Todd & Doyle Brunson, and superstars of the online-playing fraternity, such as Isaac “Mr_Menlo” Baron, Sorel Mizzi etc?

Irish Poker Open Prizepool

Irish Poker Open 2008 Prizepool- – €3,001,400

1 € 801,400
2 € 420,000
3 € 275,000
4 € 220,000
5 € 175,000
6 € 135,000
7 € 100,000
8 € 75,000
9 € 50,000
10 -12 €32,500
13-18 €24,000
19-27 €18,000
28- 36 €13,000
37-45 € 9,000
46-54 € 6,500
55-63 € 5,500
64-72 € 4,500

Irish Open Day 1(a)

Day 1 kicked off at 2pm (315 Players), and UKGamblingforums staff wandered around snapping the players without challenge.Irish hopes included Andy Black, UKGF’s own Niall O, and a bunch of players from Boards.ie as well as plenty of satellite players.

Other big name players on day 1(a) included Sorel “imper1um” Mizzi, Doyle Brunson , Trond Eidsvig (who seems to final table every EPT), Roland de Wolfe (who spent the first 90 Mins of play getting a Massage), Todd Brunson, Joe “BigEgypt” Elpayaa, John Duthie (one of the founders of the EPT), Mike “Timex” mcDonald on same table as Dave “devilfish” Ulliot, to name but a few. I also recognised Jen Mason, Ram Vaswani, and spoke to micky wernick and HendonMobster Barney Boatman (both of whom were very nice and let me take their pics.)

The first elimination of the day was given a large chocolate easter-egg in a basket (expensive egg, at 4500 Euros!). Irishman Andy Black grinded his stack up to about 45k pretty quickly, however he busted out pretty soon when his opponent rivered a backdoor straight. D’oh!

Top 10 Chipcounts at end of day 1(a)

82,250 Jay Renehan
78,700 AlexanderFitzgerald
72,375 Carsten Joh
69,325 Mazhar Nawab
60,100 Thomas Dempsey
59,275 David Gregory
59,150 Keith Littlewood
56,225 Sorel Mizzi
55,225 John Keown
53,800 Doyle Brunson
51,300 Graham Clarkson

Irish Poker Open Day 1(b)

It turns out Paddy Power didn’t sell as many seats as last year, so they were trying to sell a few seats by running some 1 hand satellites (350 Euros buyin, 2 tables, 1 hand – winner takes all, 2nd place gets his money back).. So half an hour later they announced that there was an overlay, and poor old Paddy Power were paying the remaining two hundred thousand euro to make up the guarantee!

Top 10 Chipcounts Day 2

99400 Eric Larcheveque
92250 Lars Hougaard
84875 Knut Rysstad
82250 Jay Renehan
78700 Alexander Fitzgerald
76425 Conor Tate
72375 Carsten Joh
69700 James Daly
69325 Mazhar Nawab
65000 Nick Goodall

Day 2 saw the feature table getting opened up, and of course Doyle Brunson was there in his iconic stetson. Sorel Mizzi was on 120k+, and looking good to final table this event 2 years on the trot. Irishman Donal Norton was another serious contender to hit the final table with a huge stack. Neil Channing was also looking good for a Final Table spot with plenty of chips around him.

Final chipcounts end of day 3

Seat 1: Neil Channing — 2,748,000
Seat 2: Tim Blake — 912,000
Seat 3: Kai Danilo Paulsen — 716,000
Seat 4: Thomas Dunwoodie — 544,000
Seat 5: Edwin Tournier — 562,000
Seat 6: Donal Norton — 1,164,000

The Final Table

Channing ran good on the final table and won himself >800K Euro. Channing had also placed a bet on himself at 100-1, so quite a nice payday for him. Irishman Donal Norton came 2nd for Just over 400k Euro. Congratulations to both players!. No Final table deal was made.

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