Mark Finnane Takes the Day 1b Chip Lead of the €1,150 Luxon Mystery Bounty
After another 14 Levels of play here at the Irish Poker Open on Day 1/B of the €1,150 Luxon Mystery Bounty, 79 are guaranteed to join the 43 that made it through yesterday's flight. Today saw over the double amount of entries as yesterday and it was Mark Finnane who bagged the biggest of the 268 entries here at the Royal Dublin Society in Ireland's cosmopolitan capital.
He bagged a stack of 448,500 for Day 2. Finnane flew under the radar for most of the day. His best cashes in tournaments both came in Pot Limit Omaha; he won €11,800 when he won the € 650 Pot Limit Omaha - Galway Championship 7-Max in January and secured €26,001 for another first place finish in the € 2,500 Pot Limit Omaha - Irish Championship 7-Max One Day Event. All of his cashes have come in Ireland so maybe another big score is on the horizon in this event. His largest Hold'em cash of €9,965 was won here in Dublin.
Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mark Finnane | United Kingdom | 448,500 | 150 |
| 2 | Leonel Guerra Garza | Mexico | 416,500 | 139 |
| 3 | Scott Stewart | United States | 414,800 | 138 |
| 4 | Liam McVeigh | Ireland | 407,500 | 136 |
| 5 | Patrice Brandt | Germany | 372,000 | 124 |
| 6 | Chun Chang | Netherlands | 356,000 | 119 |
| 7 | Conor Beresford | United Kingdom | 324,000 | 108 |
| 8 | Vasileios Zisis | Greece | 281,000 | 94 |
| 9 | Andreas Putz | Austria | 279,000 | 93 |
| 10 | Georgios Tsouloftas | Cyprus | 273,000 | 91 |
Leonel Guerra Garza claimed the second podium spot with 416,000. Garza made sure his second bullet counted after he busted with top pair against Cowboys of Stanislav Ivanov six hours into play today. The Mexican national will be sure to make this second bullet count and has a solid stack to work with heading into Day 2, and will be looking to add to his $291,181 in career tournament earnings.
Rounding out the final podium spot is American Scott Stewart with 414,800, who on all accounts seems quite the character. He sent Jamie Brent to the rail with a superior two pair of which he was reluctant to call with. Later on in the day whilst receiving a head massage, he jammed over 400,000 from the big blind with eight-high after Brandon Shiels opened from the button.
Conor Beresford bagged a stack of 324,000 and Georgios Tsouloftas has 273,000 to work with on Day 2. Ankit Ahuja fired two bullets yesterday to no avail but he today he bagged 149,500.
Alessandro Pichierri, Felix Schneiders, Michael Khan and Stephen O'Dwyer are just a few of the notable names who will need to fire again in order to make Day 2 of this event.
Once again the structure for Day 1/C remains the same as 1/B and 1/A so expect more of the same from 12 p.m. local time.
As always stay tuned to PokerNews for more exciting coverage of the 45th anniversary of the oldest poker series in Europe.