The 6th annual Irish Poker Event at the Macau Sporting Club in Cork, Ireland, happened on August 15th-August 17th, 2008 with the 150,000 euros guaranteed main poker event attracting a record crowd. The 169 participant field exceeded the 114 players playing field last year and included some of the best top poker players in the world like Annette Obrestad, Michael Greco, Ian Woodley, Roy Brindley, Marty Smyth, Jeff Duval, Sylvester Geoghegan and Mick McCloskey. Geoghegan was the defending champion from the 2007 Irish Poker Classic but was not able to repeat his performance and instead Rob Taylor performed well to make it from the final table short stack up to first place.
After 3 days of play, the ten players who made the 1,600 euros No Limit Texas Holdem Freezeout were Jeff Duvall with 455,000 chips, Michael O'Brien with 360,000 chips, Nicky Power with 355,000 chips, Ryan O'Donoghue with 300,000 chips, Mick Mckeever with 255,000 chips, Jonathan Butters with 245,000 chips, Olivier la Rochelle with 230,000 chips, Paul Corway with 160,000 chips, Ben Blackmore with 125,000 chips and Rob Taylor with 90,000 chips. McKeever was the first player to reach the rail. With his K-Q, he had hit the top pair when the flop produced a Q-7-5.
But O'Donoghue had flopped trips with the use of his pocket fives and when the turn produce another queen, he was holding with a full house while McKeever is holding trip queens. After some wagering, McKeever decided to go all-in and there was not a queen on the river to help him. Corrway finished in 9th place when he decided to go all-in on the pre-flop with his pocket queens only to meet Taylor's pocket aces and not be able to do anything.
Blackmore finished in 8th place. He raised up to $22,000 in late position with pocket tens and O'Donoghue re-raised up to $65,000. Black then decided to went all-in on the top and O'Donoghue had to hit the tank for a while before making a call with his pocket jacks. The jacks stayed in place and Blackmore was out of the game. It was not then long after when O'Brien look down to find pocket sixes and decided to move all-in. Power then called him with his A-seven and when the board ran out of K-K-3-9-9, he had the winning card hand and O'Brien finished in 7th place.
During the final battle, the players had change a bit in the leader board, leaving Butters at the Bottom as the short stack while Taylor steadily made its way on the top of the leader board. Butter then chose to push with his K-2 and Taylor answered him with an A-Q. The flop then came on the A-Q-J and it was over for Butters. Butters finished in the 6th place. On the next card hand, Duvall decided to take a stand with his card hand after seeing a T-7-3. Power then called with his pocket three while Duval turned over with an A-T. The turn and river turn out to be a bad one for Duvall and he have to settle for 5th place.
The final 4 participants struck an agreement for the remaining cash pool and then they work to finish off the game. Power went out next when Taylor made an ace high flush on the river to edge out Power's jack high flush. Taylor then received pocket fours to edge out O'Donoghue who possess an A-T. La Rochelle was no match in the heads-up showdown against Taylor.
09/14/2008 07:53 PM