Seamus Cahill Bastion of Irish Hope at Start of Day 3
Welcome to Day 3 of the €1,150 Irish Open Main Event at the spacious convention halls of the Royal Dublin Society. A total of 2,491 runners registered to have a shot at glory, but only 160 of them have made it to Day 3. The prize pool of €2,428,475 will largely be divided between them, with a top prize of €365,000 being awarded to the eventual winner.
Once everything had calmed down after the bubble-bursting Day 2, United Kingdom’s Carl Shaw emerged as the chip leader, bagging an impressive 1,700,000 chips, equating to 142 big blinds at the start of play today.
Shaw won a WSOP bracelet in the $5,000 no limit hold’em event back in 2019, so he knows how to come out on top of big, tough fields. He will put those skills to the test once more today as the field is planned to play down all the way to the final table.
However, Shaw will not be the only experienced player fighting for the final table, as fellow bracelet winners Dominik Nitsche (851,000), Benny Glaser (546,000), and David Miscikowski (436,000) are also still in contention to win in the Irish capital.
On the home front, it is Seamus Cahill leading the pack. He sits comfortably in second on the leaderboards with 1,576,000 in chips. Another Irishman in the top 10 who is trying to keep the trophy at home is Marc MacDonnell, who is playing 1,113,000 and has achieved the impressive feat of cashing the Irish Open Main Event for the eighth time in a row with his Day 3 appearance.
Top 10 Chip Stacks
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Carl Shaw | UK | 1,700,000 | 142 |
| 2 | Seamus Cahill | Ireland | 1,576,000 | 131 |
| 3 | Eftychios Georgiou | Cyprus | 1,410,000 | 118 |
| 4 | David Docherty | Scotland | 1,335,000 | 111 |
| 5 | Michel Molenaar | Netherlands | 1,191,000 | 99 |
| 6 | Marc MacDonnell | Ireland | 1,113,000 | 93 |
| 8 | Dwayne Sluis | Netherlands | 1,077,000 | 90 |
| 9 | Sean O'Reilly | Ireland | 994,000 | 83 |
| 10 | Barry Devlin | Ireland | 973,000 | 81 |
| 10 | Leo Worthington-Leese | UK | 970,000 | 81 |
Other hometown heroes include Andy Black (380,000), Padraig Parkinson (378,000), and Paul Carr (246,000).
Play will resume at noon local time, with blinds at 6,000/12,000 with a 12,000 big blind ante. All levels will have a duration of 60 minutes and the plan is to play until a final table has been reached.
Be sure to tune in to PokerNews regularly as we bring you all the updates on the road to the 2023 Irish Open Main Event final table.