Hopefully you have been enjoying your Easter weekend but we should always spare a thought for people that have to work during these busy times. Even though some of us get some well-earned time off to spend with loved ones, there are also people that find that this is when they are at their busiest. While you may be thinking that the Easter break is a perfect time for poker players to relax, there is definitely a lot to be said for taking this time to engage in some serious poker action. This is why there has been so much focus on Dublin, which has been hosting the Irish Open over the Easter Weekend.
This event is one of the most prestigious in the world of poker and it has a great reputation. Dublin has a fantastic reputation as the sort of place that people love to visit but for the poker players involved with the Irish Open, there wasn’t much time to party. It has been all about the business and things are now starting to head along to a big finish. This is because the final table has been set up and there are now just eight players in with a chance of winning the prestigious poker event.
Plenty to play for in Dublin
Day three of the event, which was Sunday, started off with 63 players and every one of them was no doubt thinking about grabbing the first prize, which is an impressive €265,000. The Sunday play took 12 hours but this allowed the 63 players to be narrowed down to a cast of eight and it is these players who will be taking part in the Monday session. One of the interesting things about the Sunday poker was that the main players managed to hold their lead. Quite often in poker play, a leader at the start of the day will find that their dominance is eroded rather quickly but that has not been the case in Dublin.
Calvin Anderson and Ian Simpson were the leaders at the start of the day and they are both coming in to the Monday session with a great deal of confidence and happiness with their form and their poker stack. This can all change in a short space of time but there is no doubt that there is a lot to look forward to for these players.
The player who got caught on the bubble was Niall O’Sullivan, who was the last player to go home with nothing. There was a surprise in store for O’Sullivan though because he was informed that he would receive a free pass to the Irish Open in 2014, which definitely helped to soften the blow of exiting with no money.
With only eight players going through to the final table, there was always going to be a big exit of some big names. This means that players like Liam Flood, Dermot Blaine and Andy Black all missed out on coming back for the big event on Sunday.