Monster Irish Open Online Main Event Flight and High Roller Success for Vieira

April 09, 2020

It was another exciting day of action at the online felt with the start of the €1,100 Irish Open Online Main Event on partypoker, with the €1,000,000 guarantee looking like being smashed after it generated a prize pool of €831,000 from the first flight alone.

Meanwhile, two more champions were crowned in the €2,100 High Roller and €152 Deepstack Events.

The Irish Open Online runs all this week, so head to the partypoker client and click on the special lobby to view all the events!

Joao Vieira Defeats Simon Higgins Heads-up to win €2,100 High Roller

Portuguese bracelet-winner Joao Vieira was the big winner on the third day of the Irish Open Online on partypoker, winning over €70,000 after winning Event #8: €2,100 High Roller.

He topped a 154-player field, defeating the UK's Simon Higgins heads-up to secure the title in just under nine hours.

Irish Open Online Event #8 Final Table Results

Final Table Action

Simon Higgins (pictured) came into the final table as the overwhelming chip leader, with more than double the chip stack of second-place Simon Mattsson. However, it was the Swede who would bust first.

Higgins opened and Mattsson three-bet out of the small blind. Higgins four-bet jammed and Mattsson snap-called with pocket jacks. The Brit had ace-five off but spiked an ace on the flop to send Mattsson to the rail to set with over 130 big blinds seven-handed.

Joao Vieira would close the gap soon thereafter, moving above a million in chips himself, before Higgins eliminated Juha Helppi and Guntis Aleskins in quick succession to reassert himself at the top of the chip counts.

However, a double elimination from Vieira would see him battle back into contention. He held ace-king against the king-three of Elliot Smith and the queens of Wilhelm Isaak. Vieira rivered a flush to send both opponents to the rail and bring the tournament to three-handed.

There was still another hour's worth of action left, but the majority of that would be heads-up after Higgins got rid of Aaron Vanblarcum in third place to hold a 3.3m to 1.2m chip lead.

The crucial hand came when Vieira made the nut flush on a river that paired the board. Higgins bet, Vieira raised and Higgins re-raised putting Vieira all in. Vieira took his time before calling, and suddenly the stacks at the beginning of heads-up were flipped around.

Simon Higgins: slowroll
Joao Vieira: was honestly scared about full house

And although the stacks did level out somewhat, Vieira opened up a chip lead once more and you felt it was only a matter of time before Vieira clinched victory, which he did, taking down the High Roller and over €70,000 for his efforts.

Monster Field in First Irish Open Online Main Event Flight

The Main Event of the Irish Open Online on partypokergot underway yesterday, and if the first of four starting flights is anything to go by, the €1,000,000 guarantee looks set to be absolutely obliterated.

A total of 831 players entered on Day 1a, generating a prize pool of €831,000. Of them, just 302 advanced to Day 2 on Saturday, 11th April at 19:00 (BST).

Leading the way is Philipp Krist (328,011) who is one of two players over 300,000 in chips. The other is Robert Bickley (320,432).

Other big names bagging top ten stacks include Calvin Anderson (pictured), Mark Radoja and Ben Farrell.

Irish Open Online Main Event Day 1a Chip Leaders

Other notables included Mustapha Kanit (186,591), Jens Lakemeier (174,680, Jason Wheeler (172,069), Parker Talbot (147,417), Niall Farrell (141,952), Scott Margereson (141,051), Andras Nemeth (121,483) and Kristen BIcknell (116,197).

2017 champion Griffin Benger (pictured) (119,540) also advanced at the first attempt, with 2016 champion Dan Wilson busting out.

Plenty of big names just missed out punching their ticket to Day 2, including Andy Black, Kenny Hallaert, Orpen Kisacikoglu, Talal Shakerchi, Elio Fox, Conor Beresford, Dara O'Kearney, Sam Greenwood, Dario Sammartino, Ryan Riess and Dominik Nitsche to name but a few.

Robert Malvasi Wins Irish Open Online Event #9 for €15,098

A total of 540 players entered Event #9 of the Irish Open Online, making it the largest single-day event of the festival so far. In the end, it was Robert Malvasi who walked away as the latest champion with €15,098 for his efforts.

He defeated Gianluca Speranza heads-up at a final table that also featured Guntis Aleskins, a player who has been having a storming series so far.

Irish Open Online Event #9 Final Table results

A total of 72 players were in the money, including Tom Hall (12th - €1,069), Robin Ylitalo (36th - €446), Leo Worthington-Leese (38th - €446) and former WSOP Main Event champion Martin Jacobson (47th - €413).

2020 Irish Open Online Schedule

The Irish Open continues today with the second flight of the €1,100 Irish Open Online Main Event as well as PLO Deepstack kicking off at 8pm (BST)

Managing Editor

Based in the United Kingdom, Will started working for PokerNews as a freelance live reporter in 2015 and joined the full-time staff in 2019. He graduated from the University of Kent in 2017 with a B.A. in German. He also holds an NCTJ Diploma in Sports Journalism.

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