Irish Festival Daily Updates

Sunday 5th October

The remaining 39 players in the Main Event took to their seats at 1pm. The room was busy with many more of the railbirds taking advantage of the overhead view of all 4 tables. As the blinds wore on players were exiting at a swift rate. Several of the Laddies regulars remained at the head of affairs though.

Danish qualifier Bo Eriksson was starting to look like a real threat and built a nice stack going into the final table. He was joined by AKOLAS (Nick Heathers) and Day 2 chip leader Jimmy McSweeney. The early skirmishes at the final table left one player, Hugh Whelan, decimated and tagged with the familiar poker phrase "a chip and a chair".

Whelan was left with a mere 3000 ante as the next hand was dealt. What followed was nothing short of amazing. Double up after double up led to the Whelan having over 1 million chips by the time the dinner break came round - an awesome comeback. The first of the Laddies players to leave the final table was Plum12. Again, this was an excellent effort given that he only qualified in the very last Weekly Final – well played sir.

AKOLAS eventually went out in 5th place - a terrific performance for the Laddies MTT specialist. Finishing in 4th place was Hugh Whelan who almost completed one of the most heroic comebacks seen anywhere in a major tournament. Down to 3, and next to go was Bo Eriksson, who collected €35,000 and finished as the highest placed player from the Nordics. Heads up now.

Long time chip leader Jimmy McSweeney was up against Ladbrokes qualifier Andrew Roberts. Andrew plays as Slickjack on Laddies and qualified via a Daily Final then Weekly Final to get to Killarney. The heads up battle quickly began to go McSweeney's way. The home favourite sealed the title and €100,000 1st prize when his pocket 6s held up against Andrew Robert's A9 concluding a short Heads Up of just 25 minutes.

The Laddies qualifier can console himself by spending some of the €65,000 he picked up for 2nd place. That leaves us to say a huge congratulations to Jimmy McSweeney who takes down the 2008 Ladbrokes Poker Festival Main Event. Jimmy, from Cork was cheered and hugged by friends and family as he collected his cheque for €100,000 and trophy from Ladbrokes Ireland Country Manager, Bryan Coleman.

A special mention to one of the sites better known faces mickjagger1 (John Hughes). Jagger as he is known, finished 2nd in the €300 side event having dominated proceedings for most of the day. The winner of the event was John Lavin who collected a very healthy cheque for €25,000. The third and final side event was still in play in the early hours and the result will follow.

Sunday saw the end of what was certainly a memorable poker weekend for many of the Laddies players. The main event field of 832 made it the highest ranking event ever to be staged in Ireland. A special mention should go to Destination Killarney and Big Slick for combining with Ladbrokes to put on great spectacle in a fantastic part of the world.

Saturday 4th October

Day 2 of the Ladbrokes Poker Festival Main Event got underway at 1pm prompt on Saturday. The 386 players still remaining returned wondering if their name was to be etched in history by winning the 1st prize of €100,000. A further 391 players registered for Event 2 which was the €300 freezeout that began an hour later.

The total prize pool for this side event was in excess of €100,000 with the winner guaranteed at least €25,000. Back to the main event - and the casualties were falling thick and fast. Laddies stalwart richlizard was swiftly joining more regulars in the bar when his KK succumbed to a local player's AK. Not amused, the lizard decided to take his exit to a new level - by filming it live on his camera!!! I expect the forumites have not heard or even seen the last of his demise.

The bubble was reached around 11pm on Saturday night with an unnamed player scooping the consolation prize of a 2009 festival package for finishing an unlucky (but still lucky) 84th. Familiar players who also fell just shy of the money included The_Derv and biglad. Play for the day finished at around 3am with 39 players still in the Main Event.

The average chip count was 320,000 and the chip leader was a Ladbrokes Poker Danish qualifier by the name of Bo Eriksson with 709,000 chips. Other notable Laddies players still dreaming of the glory include Julesky (539,000), tombo55 (229,000), Boomer797 (275,000), EMMERSON (147,000) and dmb_London (627,000). Play will resume at 1pm Sunday where the tournament will be played to a conclusion.

At the close of play, the €300 side event still had 46 players still left. Play for this event will resume at 2pm. As always we wish all the Ladbrokes players the very best of luck.

Friday 3rd October

Following much talk and very little hype, the phenomenon that is the Ladbrokes Irish Poker Festival main event began at 4pm as scheduled in the Gleneagle conference centre. A massive 832 players took their seats in what had become one of the most eagerly anticipated tournaments in the poker calendar. Presentations to Fintan Gavin and Marty Smyth recognising their recent success preceded the action, but it wasn't long before the riffling of chips was heard.

The masses of Laddies players that had made the trip from all parts of Europe began to drop out think and fast. SOXxxxx and T8MML were the first casualties where there was a first prize of €100,000 at stake. A lot of players were thinking about the prize money, but many more were here just to enjoy the Killarney banter and mix with their fellow online poker foes. The early evening levels then took care of many more Laddies regulars notably - gavinalways, yobenike, mitchhh2, James666 and wildrick.

The converted conference and entertainment room provided a spectacular view for poker enthusiasts as well as friends and family of the players. The tiered room provided excellent opportunity for all those mentioned to rail those in the Main Event. By the early hours we had lost over half of the field.

The unofficial chip leader was a local by the name of Ritchie Lawler with approximately 130,000 chips. Amongst the Laddies regulars to make it through to day 2 were - mitchhh, ROYTHEBOY, The_Derv, Macccio, EMMERSON, s7eve, richlizard and Kunglui. The average stack is 32,000 and the players will resume play at 1pm. The total prize pool is €416,000 (surpassing all expectations) with 83 of the field making the money.

We wish all of the Ladbrokes players the very best of luck on Day 2.