blonde poker

Easter Monday saw the eight remaining players from 708 starters contest the final of the 2010 Irish Open at the Burlington Hotel in Dublin. The final table line up consisted of Four Irishmen, three British Players and a Finn with the chip leader Paul Carr from Limerick. At stake was €600,000 to the winner and the prestigous title in Europe's longest runnign Poker tournament.

First player out was Louthman Peter Murphy, unluckily eliminated by aggressive Englishman James Mitchell. Murphy's Ace-King outdrawn by Mitchell's King-ten, all-in pre-flop with a ten on the flop followed by Declan Connolly with Ace-King against Paul Carr's Pocket Tens. Ulsterman Ed Sweeney exited in sixth before veteran English Player Ben Roberts pushed once too often and his Queen-Jack failed to out-draw Santeri Valikowski's Ace-King.

Four handed Carr had over Four Million of the Seven Million Chips in play, a position that held until three handed once Rob Sherwood from Manchester had been knocked out in fourth. At that point, helped by James Mitchell flopping trip Aces, and turning Quads against Paul Carr's flopped nut flush draw, the chip counts levelled up and at the dinner break the chip counts of the final three were as follows:

Paul Carr   2,087,000

James Mitchell   2,622,000

Santeri Valikoski   2,328,000

Therefore the title was there for the taking for all three.

 After the break Carr's relentless aggression gave him the upper hand and Valikoski struggled to maintain his stack eventually falling in third to Mitchell when forced to push on the button.

Heads-up, England against Ireland, Mitchell against Carr with Carr beginning with a narrow chip lead. The Heads-Up lasted over two hours until eventually Mitchell took a 5-1 chip lead after beating Queens with Ace-Six, all-in pre-flop and a rivered Ace and then flopped two pair with Ace-Eight on a J-J- board to call Carr's steal push with Queen-Five.


So James Mitchell from London became the 2010 Irish Open Champion. Congratulations to him