The first day of the 2025 Irish Open €1,150 Main Event saw a field of 463 entrants take to the felt, eclipsing the 379 that entered in last year's Day 1a. Of the 463 entries, 114 will be returning to the Royal Dublin Society for Day 2 which will take place on Saturday, April 19 at 12 p.m. local time.
Of the 114 remaining, Martin Ilavsky came out best, bagging a stack of 529,000 for his efforts today. The Slovakian national was consistently towards the top of the counts throughout the day and will be looking for a first cash in Dublin to add to his total tournament earnings of $448,913.
Day 1a Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Martin Ilavsky | Slovakia | 529,000 | 176 |
| 2 | Andrii Nikitin | Ukraine | 526,000 | 175 |
| 3 | Philip Carroll | Ireland | 523,500 | 175 |
| 4 | Michael Prendergast | United States | 520,000 | 173 |
| 5 | James McCreanor | United Kingdom | 460,500 | 154 |
| 6 | Mengshi Tian | Hong Kong | 441,500 | 147 |
| 7 | Seamus Cahill | Ireland | 438,000 | 146 |
| 8 | Stanislav Ivanov | Bulgaria | 426,500 | 142 |
| 9 | Silviu Tanase | Romania | 410,000 | 137 |
| 10 | Stanislav Anufriiev | Ukraine | 405,000 | 135 |
Hot on Ilavsky's heels is Ukrainian Andrii Nikitin. Nikitin rocketed up the counts after winning a four-way all in with ace-queen in a monster pot towards the latter stages of today's play. He bagged 526,000 after the 14 Levels that were played today. He is coming off the back of his second largest cash of €10,320 which came in the €1,100 No Limit Hold'em Main Event at the PokerStars Open Campione in Italy last month. Maybe another deep run is on the cards?
Rounding out the podium places is Philip Carroll, who is a PokerStars Qualifier. He has a stack of 523,500 to work with on Day 2. Every single one of his recorded live cashes have come in Ireland, the largest of which was a score of €28,400 courtesy of a second-place finish in Dublin back in 2012.
Other notables guaranteed a Day 2 stack from this flight include but are not limited to: Jack Hardcastle (252,000), Nikolaos Lampropoulos, (209,000), Philippe Souki (168,000), PokerStars Ambassadors Caitlin Comeskey (107,000), Marle Spragg (95,000) and Alejandro Romero (46,000).
Barny Boatman, another PokerStars Ambassador, was not as fortunate and will need to fire again in one of the upcoming flights to make Day 2. Michael Dwyer, Frank Stepuchin, and Antoine Vranken also missed the cut.
The next flight will be taking place on Wednesday, April 16 at 12 p.m. local time with the same structure featured today.
Even though the Main Event flights are taking a break for the next few days, there is plenty more action to come in Day 3 of the €1,150 Luxon Mystery Bounty which commences at 12 p.m. local time, so stay tuned to PokerNews for the upcoming action.
