Duff Charette and Christopher Nguyen had amassed 80,000 in the middle when they went to a Q♦2♦9♦A♠8♦ river. Charette checked to Nguyen, who made a sizable bet of 60,000.
Charette almost instantly tossed his J♦7♦ into the muck, forfeiting the pot and seeing it being dragged to Nguyen.
Samuel Ju and Mengshi Tian had built a 100,000-chip pot when a turn of 6♠A♠9♥8♣ was dealt. Ju checked from the small blind before being put all-in by Tian in the big blind.
Ju gave it some thought before calling off his last 50,000.
Samuel Ju: K♠9♠
Mengshi Tian: 6♥6♦
Ju had hoped to be up against a lower flush draw, but ran into Tian's set instead. The 2♣ river did not bring Ju his desired spade, sending him to the rail.
One table over, Derk van Luijk was seen losing his last chips to Jordan Glazer.
The action was picked up on a blind-on-blind turn of 10♥4♣J♥4♥, with around 37,000 in the pot. Samuel Ju checked to Timo Kamphues, who fired a bet of 20,000.
Ju then moved all in for 90,000, getting snap-called by his opponent.
Samuel Ju: K♠K♣
Timo Kamphues: 5♥3♥
Ju needed to fill up to stay alive, but the 6♣ river brought him no relief, seeing him book his second exit of the day.
Simulteanously, Severi Palmu was also eliminated after having bought in a second time.
Ludvig Sterner checked from the big blind on a 9♣5♥7♣7♠ turn. Diego Montone then added 20,000 to the pot of 75,000 from the hijack, which Sterner called.
The 10♣ fell on the river, seeing Sterner check once more. Montone took some time before putting his opponent all-in for 46,500, and was snap-called.
Montone could only show king-high with K♠Q♣, while Sterner had rivered a boat with his 10♥10♦ for a comfortable double-up. Montone, on the other hand, was left with a stack of 10 big blinds.
Arriving on a river of 5♥4♠2♦8♣2♥, Bernard Larabi checked from the hijack to [Removed:553] on the button, who made a bet of 26,000 into the pot of 33,000.
Larabi then moved all in for 76,500, and Simon made the call after getting an exact count.
Larabi tabled 8♠8♦ for top full house, comfortably beating the 6♠5♠ of Simon. Larabi doubled up and overtook Simon on the leaderboard.
At another table, Diego Montone and Marcelo Manfredini fell victim to a double knock-out and were eliminated from the tournament.
Steve O'Dwyer got in his stack of 78,500 from the big blind against chipleader Mengshi Tian, who sat in the hijack.
Steve O'Dwyer: J♦J♣
Mengshi Tian: A♠Q♣
Tian paired up on the A♣5♦3♣ flop, and O'Dwyer's jacks could not catch up on the 6♥Q♥ runout as Tian rivered two pair.
O'Dwyer gave the table a friendly pat before turning his attention to Daniel Smiljkovic, who was seated at the same table.
O'Dwyer was not happy with Smiljkovic being allowed to be seated past the deadline of the start of Level 11, implying he registered too late on purpose.
"I'll make sure the whole world will know the shit you're pulling," O'Dwyer stated.
Smiljkovic just sat with a grin on his face, eventually telling O'Dwyer, "I think you should retire. It might be better," as O'Dwyer left the tournament area.
Samuel Ju had committed his final few blinds in the big blind, while Mengshi Tian in middle position and Adrian Cazacu in the cutoff had built a side pot of 36,500.
The flop fell J♥7♣2♦. Tian quickly check-folded to a bet of 20,000 from Cazacu, creating a showdown between Ju and Cazacu.
Samuel Ju: J♠10♦
Adrian Cazacu: K♥J♦
The 8♦2♠ runout could not save Ju, who was forced to leave the field with his inferior kicker.
The €10,000 Super High Roller at the 2025 Irish Open, sponsored by PokerStars and Paddy Power Poker, started off as a quiet affair. It needed a few minutes to get underway, with three players taking their seats at the halls of the Royal Dublin Society about ten minutes after starting time. However, over the course of the ten levels of late registration, 53 entries were made, collecting a prize pool of €503,831, of which 25 made it through to Day 2.
Mengshi Tian joined in the second level of the day and could not be stopped for most of the day. At one point, the Hong Kong native had nearly eight starting stacks in front of him. However, he lost some pots near the end of the night, and he ended with 600,000 chips in his bag, six starting stacks, worth 100 big blinds at the start of Day 2. That put him in the lead in the hunt for the top prize of €163,800, which would double Tian's total lifetime earnings.
Following Tian in the counts is Christopher Nguyen. Nguyen was the recipient of a 1,000 big blind pot at the start of the day, doubling his starting stack. He closed the day out with a stack of 354,000, bagging just over half of Tian's chips. Marcel Kessler rounds out the top three with 284,000, while satellite winner Adrian Cazacu put his ticket to good use, ending in fourth with 265,000.
Adrian Cazacu
Other notables in the top ten include longtime high roller Govert Metaal (261,000), highest-placed Irishman Robbie Toan (251,000), and online phenom Anton "WhatIfGod" Bergstrom (200,000), who is attending more and more live events.
End of Day 1 Top Ten Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Day 2 Big Blinds
1
Mengshi Tian
Hong Kong
600,000
60
2
Christopher Nguyen
Austria
354,000
59
3
Marcel Kessler
Germany
284,000
47
4
Adrian Cazacu
Romania
265,000
44
5
Govert Metaal
Netherlands
261,000
44
6
[Removed:548]
Austria
259,000
43
7
Robbie Toan
Ireland
251,000
42
8
Jorge Artiga-Pacheco
Canada
237,000
40
9
Roope Tarmi
Finland
215,000
36
10
Bernard Larabi
Hungary
200,000
33
Like Cazacu, Ireland's Simon Wilson grabbed his ticket in the satellite, and made Day 2 with 160,000. 2022 GPI Player of the Year Stephen Song needed two bullets to find a bag with 148,000, while 2023 EPT Cyprus winner [Removed:553] ended with less than a starting stack with 91,000 chips in his possession. Meanwhile, Finnish legend Juha Helppi bagged up 54,000 chips as the absolute short stack of the field.
Simon Wilson
With just over half the field not making it through, many notable names saw their tournament end on Day 1. Samuel Ju fired three entries without success, while 2022 Irish Open Main Event champion Steve O'Dwyer fell victim to Tian's wrath before exchanging some heated words with Daniel Smiljkovic, who did make it to Day 2 with 133,000. EPT founder John Duthie also came to play some high-stakes poker in Dublin, but was eliminated just before the end of late registration.
The 25 remaining players will return at 1 p.m. local time tomorrow, April 17, for the second and final day of the Super High Roller. Seven of them will reach the money, with the min-cash amounting to a staggering €26,500. Meanwhile, two six-figure payouts are reserved for the eventual heads-up opponents.
€10,000 Super High Roller Payouts
Place
Prize
1
€163,800
2
€108,300
3
€73,100
4
€55,400
5
€42,800
6
€34,000
7
€26,500
The tournament will resume in Level 14: 3,000/6,000 with a 6,000 big blind ante. All levels will remain 40 minutes in length until the final three players have been reached or a deal has been made, at which point they will be reduced to 30 minutes. The 30-second shot clock will also remain in play until the end of the tournament, which will be when the winner is declared at the end of Day 2.
For the first time in 11 years, a new Super High Roller champion will be crowned at the Irish Open. Tune back in to PokerNews tomorrow to find out who will receive the honor, along with all the action leading up to it.
![Profile photo of [Removed:548]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
