blonde poker

James Dempsey is the first-ever iSeriesLIVE Champion after defeating nine others in the event, part of this year’s Irish Open festival which featured ten top pros in the €10,000 buy-in winner take all Sit-N-Go.

The audience was able to take part by betting on everything from individual hands to the overall winner in real time as they watched the action on a livestream complete with hole cards. Dempsey overtook early chip leader Faraz Jaka with Aces against Kings, all in pre-flop, to take a chip lead that he was never to relinquish.

Devilfish, some four hours into play, looked like being first out when all in with 6-6 against Hellmuth's Q-Q. but he hit a set on the flop to double up. Hellmuth was now short-stacked and was the first out when his A-Q lost a race against Daniel Negreanu’s pocket nines. That gave Negreanu a win in the much publicised last longer with Hellmuth. Negreanu wouldn’t last much longer though. He flopped an open-ended straight flush draw with 5-4 on K-6-3 to Dempsey’s K-J and pushed all-in. Dempsey took his time with a long dwell, called, held, and knocked Negreanu out in eighth to amass a huge chip lead.

Short stacks Tobias Reinkemeier and Jaka hit the rail. Dempsey took out Carlos Mortensen in fourth place, leaving Dempsey, Ulliott, and Maria Ho three handed. Dempsey had both his opponents  outchipped, but Ulliott knocked out Ho in third.

The blinds were now such that a short heads-up battle was inevitable. Dempsey won seven of the eight hands of heads-up play, and his AK beat Ulliott’s A8 on the final hand of action.

Dempsey adds an iSeriesLIVE title to his WSOP bracelet and WPT Bellagio win. Ulliott earned nothing for his runner-up finish. Victory would have been his first six-figure score since his win in the Paris in 2009.