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MINI WSOP 2010 While the November 9 were gathering in Las Vegas for their final table show down, back on Planet Earth a number of lesser mortals had gathered in the Maldron Hotel, Tallaght, Dublin for Ireland’s mini version of the WSOP.
Report from Dublin by MICKY McCLOSKEY
BETFRED LDIES TOUR: FINL LEG
New mother Rita Gilroy swapped nappies for cards as she claimed a place in the Grand Final of the
Betfred Ladies’ Poker Tour by winning the last heat of the 2010 series in London and collecting £2,330.
She said: “I can’t believe I did it. I so nearly didn’t make it to the event because I was struggling to find a babysitter with my husband away working in Ireland. Thankfully my sister-in-law stepped in.” Teresa Kitson ensured she finished top of the leaderboard for the year’s most consistent non-winner to take the final spot at the Grand Final where the top ten ladies will battle it out for the 2011 £20,000 Betfred sponsorship.
NEW POKER ROOM IN MNCHESTER
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Manchester325 has launched a new poker schedule alongside its new ground floor poker lounge. There
will be three weekly tournaments and daily cash games. Scheduled
tournaments include a £50 NLH rebuy with a guaranteed £5,000 prize pool ((subject to 40 runners) and free buffet every Thursday.
The full schedule is available at
www.manchester235.com.
Mini WSOP winner David Murray
blind levels mirrored the structures used at this year’s WSOP, but with a twist. To make the main event more player friendly, J.P. has introduced his own 25 BB rule. Basically this rule says that if at any stage the
average chip stack falls below 25 big blinds, the level will be repeated, up to three times, until the average stack increases to 25 or more big blinds. This rule prevents the tournament turning into the sort of crapshoot that most events with this sort of buy in level end up as. The buy in for this 3 day event was a fairly modest
e350. The main event was originally capped at 325 players but the organisers eventually managed to
accommodate 347 runners, generating a prize pool of e104,880. The payouts were also based on the WSOP model with 48 players making the money in a flatter than usual payout structure. J.P. has built up a good reputation for himself in
Europe and this event attracted a fair amount of visitors, with a large group from Belgium making up around 10 per cent of the field. From this group, Steve Libert took third place and e9,500 leaving the top two places to local players. Shortly after the last two got heads up their chips stacks were pretty similar in size. They agreed to split the prize money equally and
to have a chip count to establish a winner. Each player took home e18,440 and David Murray was declared the winner with Padraig Minnoch finishing in the runner up spot. Neither player had ever had a big win before so both seemed pretty happy with the outcome. David Murray is a 46 year old married man with
one daughter and lives just north of Dublin. Despite his age he describes himself as retired. I discovered that he had spent a lot of his life in the USA, where he went to college, in San Diego, California, on a golf scholarship. He spent a few years playing on the minor US
golf tours and also worked as a club pro. He used to play Draw poker when he was younger but first took an interest in Texas Hold’em when he saw it on American TV. He began playing about seven years ago but began playing more seriously in the past three years. He plays small tournaments regularly in a couple of clubs around Dublin and first played in small events in The Red Cow Hotel, which he now realises, coincidentally, were
Poker Europa | DECEMBER 2010 |
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Run by recent award winner (see my column in this issue) J. P. McCann and his team, each event’s starting stack and
organised by the very same J.P. McCann! He told me he has played some bigger
tournaments in Ireland but this is his first ever cash in a European ranking event. He also told me that he seems to be running hot right now as he had already won two tournaments in his local club earlier in the week. He said: “I’m tired, surprised and overjoyed.” He has
no plans right now for his winnings but has no doubt that his wife and kid will help him to spend them. He added: “We’re gonna have one hell of a Christmas this year.” There were a number of ranking side events held over the weekend. First up was the e150 Short Handed
event which had 143 entries. The winner, taking home e4,000, was Steven Wilson. Second place and e2,850
went to Damien Kavanagh with David McHugh taking e2,150 for third spot. Next was the e250 NLH freezeout which attracted 122 runners. The winner for e6,500 was David Kinlan. Second spot and e4,200 went to Kim Holmberg with Christopher Staquet taking e3,220 for third. The final day, Sunday, had three separate ranking
events. To start was, what is believed to be Ireland’s first ever H.O.R.S.E. tournament, a e250 buy in event where 15 players took to the tables for this little bit of history. I really wanted to win this event and managed to get heads up for the title with Kevin Fitzpatrick but eventually
had to settle for second place. Kevin took the trophy and e1,500 while I ended up with e870. Gabor Gelleri took e600 for third while Noel Hayes got his money back
after a deal was negotiated for a bubble prize, when it got four handed.
Next was a e250 Heads up tournament which had
13 entries. Michael Mason took e1,600 for the win with e1,190 going to Nathan Wilson for second place. The final ranking event was a e150 Triple Shootout with 71 runners. First place and e2,250 went to Muriel Gomez Aragon with second spot and e2,100 going to Peter McNamara. Salvatore Lannoline took e1,375 for third place. J.P. McCann has gathered together a great team
of dealers and floor people around him and, like expert jugglers, they managed to keep multiple events and cash games running smoothly over the weekend. In the words of one poster on a live updating website, “For me, it incorporates everything I love about poker. The people, the craic and the value are second to none.” I couldn’t have put it any better myself.
POKER
EUROPA
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