Florian Duta and Aleksi Lindholm had created a pot of 50,000 on the completed board of 7♦J♥3♠Q♠A♦. Duta checked from the big blind and Lindholm put Duta all in for his final 39,000 chips.
Duta thought it over for a while but ended up making the call for his tournament life. Lindholm tabled 3♣3♦ for bottom set, and Duta showed his Q♦10♦ before departing the tournament area.
Larry Ryan raised to 6,500 from the cutoff before Alexander D'Souza three-bet to 16,000 on the button. The blinds got out of the way and Ryan jammed all in for 90,000.
D'Souza snap called and the cards were tabled.
Larry Ryan: 10♠10♥
Alexander D'Souza: A♠A♥
D'Souza's rockets faced no trouble on the 3♣Q♠2♠2♦2♣ board, and his better full house awarded him the sizable pot in the dying minutes of Day 1b.
To say it was a busy day at the Royal Dublin Society on Day 1b of the 2024 €1,150 Irish Open Main Event would be an understatement. The second of four starting days blew all the records out of the water, ending up with 833 entries on the clock at the end of the late registration period. Meanwhile, the €1,000,000 guaranteed prize pool was also shattered to bits, as €1,355,250 has been collected thus far.
At the end of the day, 169 players were left standing, and they all secured a bag for Day 2, which takes place on Saturday, March 30. Leading them is hometown hero Glenn Keogh, who ended up with a stack of 393,000 chips, good for 98 big blinds at the start of Day 2. Keogh is no stranger to success in Dublin, with two of his three largest recorded live cashes having taken place in the Irish capital.
Also bagging big were James Wickens from the United Kingdom and Dutchman Firat Baltaci, who sit in second and third place with 384,000 and 370,000 chips respectively. Meanwhile, Jakob Linden from Sweden (355,000) and Alexander D'Souza from Australia (353,000) round out the international top five, while Austria, the United States, and Finland also have a representative in the top ten.
End of Day 1b Top Ten Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Day 2 Big Blinds
1
Glenn Keogh
Ireland
393,000
98
2
James Wickens
United Kingdom
384,000
96
3
Firat Baltaci
Netherlands
370,000
93
4
Jakob Linden
Sweden
355,000
89
5
Alexander D'Souza
Australia
353,000
88
6
Samuel Klocker
Austria
341,500
85
7
Brian Moore
United States
340,000
85
8
Aidan Quinlan
Ireland
328,500
82
9
Ka Wing Pun
United Kingdom
321,500
80
10
Luka Sorainen
Finland
308,500
77
Other players who managed to make it through on Day 1b include former PokerStars employee turned crusher Ankit Ahuja (280,000), old-school legends Ilari Sahamies (209,500) and Luca Pagano (172,500), and triple crown winner Niall Farrell (142,500).
Those who showed up on Day 1b but will have to make another attempt tomorrow in Day 1c or Day 1d include defending champion David Docherty, Irish all-time money leader Andy Black, PokerStars Ambassador Felix Schneiders, EPT Prague winner Padraig O'Neill, and runner-up in the same tournament Jon Kyte.
They can try again tomorrow, Friday, March 29 from noon onwards as that is when Day 1c of the Main Event kicks off. The penultimate day is expected to be the busiest of them all, and for those who get unlucky in it there is a turbo flight Day 1d planned at 8 p.m. on the same day,
Tune back in then to PokerNews to see how the final starting flights of the Irish Open Main Event play out, and witness if the attendance record gets broken for the third consecutive year.