Irish Open: Parker "tonkaaaap" Talbot wins first career title!
The oldest tournament series in Europe and the second oldest series in the world after the WSOP is back and the Royal Dublin Society is once again draped in its iconic green colours. The prestigious Irish Open plans to break its own records again this year, and we'll find out if the Main Event can do it in the next three days.
But before we get into the Main Event, we have to mention an interesting story that was born in the most expensive tournament of the entire event - the €5,000 Luxon Pay High Roller. The two-day event for the bravest of the brave saw 111 entries, bringing the prizepool value to over half a million euros.
The star of the final table was clearly PS pro team member Parker "tonkaaap" Talbot, who still hasn't scored a tournament win in his nearly 12-year career. But that unfortunate record is now a thing of the past - tonkaaap did just that, running his shortstack to the hilt at the final table and managing to walk all the way to the trophy and €134,279 in prize money!
Defeated heads-up opponent Fergal O'Cathan accepted defeat with a smile and sincere congratulations to the winner: "I'm really happy for you. You played better than me, you deserved the title." A smiling Parker replied: "Thank you, it's my first title, it means a lot to me!"
Place | Player | Country | Prize |
1 | Parker Talbot | Canada | 134,279€ |
2 | Fergal O'Cathan | Ireland | 86,635€ |
3 | Padraig O'Neill | Ireland | 61,885€ |
4 | Roope Tarmi | Finland | 47,605€ |
5 | Ian Drake | Ireland | 36,615€ |
6 | Bert Stevens | France | 28,165€ |
7 | Jamie Dwan | United Kingdom | 22,530€ |
8 | Daffodil Cristian Olaru | Spain | 18,025€ |
9 | Jani Tuovinen | Finland | 15,020€ |
Start of Main Event
The Irish Open Festival is now in full swing and yesterday also offered players their first chance to progress in the €1,150 Main Event. Flight 1A saw 379 entries over its duration, with the top 72 players reaching the packed stacks at the end of the day. Among them are PS Ambassador Fintan Hand, talented 5-time WSOP champion Benny Glaser, and WSOP and WPT title holder Juha Helppi.
The tournament will continue today from noon with Flight 1B, followed by the last of the three flights tomorrow. On Saturday, all the qualifiers will meet in Day 2, Sunday will be Day 3, and Monday's final table will finally decide the champion. What do you think, will it break last year's record of 2,491 entries?
Source - PSlive, Flickr, IrishPokerOpen