Nível 39
: Blinds 500,000/1,000,000, 1,000,000 ante
Tero Laurila raised to 2,000,000 on the button and Hiep Ninh shoved all in from the big blind. Laurila counted his chips and put in a call for his 23,000,000 chips and tournament life shortly after.
Tero Laurila: 10♥10♣
Hiep Ninh: 6♠6♣
Ninh turned some out on J♠5♣4♣7♠, but the 2♦ river bricked out as Laurila doubled through the former chipleader and took that lead from him.
Nível 40
: Blinds 600,000/1,200,000, 1,200,000 ante
Mark Johnston jammed all in from the button for 19,000,000 chips and Hiep Ninh reshoved from the small blind. Tero Laurilo folded the big blind and the cards were shown down.
Mark Johnston: 9♦9♣
Hiep Ninh: A♣J♣
It was a classic race, and Ninh shot ahead on the 4♣2♣A♥ flop. Johnston could not hit a nine on the 8♥3♦ runout, and graciously took his exit in third place, taking home €232,685 after the three-way deal.
Nível 40
: Blinds 600,000/1,200,000, 1,200,000 ante
Tero Laurila limped in from the button with K♥2♦ and Hiep Ninh checked 6♦5♠ in the big blind. The flop fell J♠7♥7♦ and Laurila continued for 1,200,000 after a check from Ninh.
Ninh then raised to 3,500,000 and Laurila stuck around with his king-high. He hit top pair on the K♣ turn as a reward, and the action went check-check.
The river was the 3♠ and Ninh tried to buy the pot with a bet of 2,700,000. Laurila made it 9,000,000 to go, however, and Ninh quickly mucked his undercards.
Nível 41
: Blinds 800,000/1,600,000, 1,600,000 ante
Tero Laurila limped in with Q♠2♦ on the button, after which Hiep Ninh raised to 3,600,000 with 9♦6♣ in the big blind. Laurila made the call and called Ninh's 1,700,000 continuation-bet on the K♥K♦4♠ flop.
Ninh sized up to 4,700,000 on the 8♠ turn, but Laurila still hung around and made the call with his queen-high. The 5♠ river saw Ninh complete his triple barrel bluff with a bet of 7,900,000.
Laurila did not think long before he hero called with his queen-high. Ninh tabled his bluff and Laurila scooped up the biggest pot of the heads up, ending up with a big chip lead.
Nível 42
: Blinds 1,000,000/2,000,000, 2,000,000 ante
Hiep Ninh open-jammed his button for 20,000,000 chips and Tero Laurila made the call in the big blind to put his opponent at risk.
Hiep Ninh: 8♠7♥
Tero Laurila: Q♠J♠
Laurila cemented his lead on the Q♥2♣9♠ flop, and secured the tournament win on the Q♦ turn. He finished in style, as the Q♣ river saw him make quads to end the tournament.
Ninh was eliminated as runner-up but took home the largest cash prize, €335,636, thanks to the three-way deal that was made.
Nível 42
: Blinds 1,000,000/2,000,000, 2,000,000 ante
A massive field of 3,233 entries assembled at the Royal Dublin Society for the 2024 Irish Open €1,150 Main Event, partly thanks to sponsors PokerStars and Paddy Power Poker, setting a new record for the Irish Open and absolutely smashing the guaranteed prize pool of €1,000,000 by creating a prize pool of €3,152,175.
However, as with any other tournament, there could only be one person left standing at the end. Over four long days of poker action, it was Day 3 chipleader Tero Laurila who won the iconic Irish Open trophy and took home €292,685 after a three-way deal.
Laurila defeated Ireland’s Hiep Ninh after a relatively short heads up battle, as the blinds had been reduced from 60 to 20 minutes after the deal. Ninh, who plays almost exclusively in Dublin, took home the larger sum of €335,636 for his efforts due to having a massive chip lead when the deal was made. The final person involved in the deal was the 21-year-old Mark Johnston, who is just dipping his toes in the waters of professional poker and walked away with €232,685 for third place.
Laurila is a full-time traveling poker player from Finland who has been playing for nearly 20 years. He mostly plays Omaha cash games, however, he has plenty of tournament experience as well, making the final table of the WCOOP Main Event in 2006 and more recently winning a main event in Barcelona for his biggest-ever live score until today.
"I almost passed out," Laurila said in an interview with Irish Open host Laura Cornelius when asked about his feelings after the win, "with all the stress coming out of my body and mind." Laurila had a big Finnish rail, with which he is sure to have a few beverages to celebrate his historic victory as the first-ever Finnish winner of the Irish Open. "I've got four and a half hours of sleep two to three nights in a row, but of course [I'm going to celebrate] something with the guys."
Also on the final table were WSOPC ring winner Georgios Tsouloftas (4th - €142,760), long-time Irish Open regular Oliver Boyce (5th - €109,820), and Spanish grinder David Tous (9th - €38,420).
Tous started the final table with a big stack, coming in as second in chips. However, in one of the first hand of the final tables, he triple-barrel bluffed into the nut flush of Johnston and lost the majority of his stack to give the latter the chip lead. Not much later, he was the first to depart the final table after losing a preflop confrontation against Ninh.
The tournament was immediately paused after Tsouloftas’ elimination as the three remaining players started an intense deal negotiation. After half an hour, they agreed to each take home a set sum of money, while leaving €25,000 for second and €60,000 for the eventual champion. Ninh, who had a massive chip lead at that point, was guaranteed to take home the biggest prize, while Laurila and Johnston were even in chips and chopped up the rest of the prize pool.
After play resumed, Ninh kept building his lead until he jammed his sixes into Laurila’s tens. Laurila held and doubled up to take over the chip lead from Ninh. Johnston was left as the only short stack as a result, and when he jammed 15 big blinds with pocket nines he lost a flip against Ninh and finished in third. Thankfully for him, he took home a heavy bag of cash thanks to the deal, a warm welcome for a relatively new professional like himself.
With the victory secured, Laurila celebrated enthusiastically with his Finnish rail as he was awarded the trophy and the title of Irish Open Main Event Champion. With that, the Main Event came to a close, and so will the PokerNews live report. However, be sure to check out the live reporting hub for coverage of other events all over the globe.