Day 1d of Galway Poker Festival Main Event Due to Kick Off

Day 4 of the Irish Poker Tour’s maiden event of 2024 is upon us, the Paddy Power Poker partnered Galway Poker Festival, featuring Day 1d of the €600 Galway Poker Cup Main Event, kicking off at noon local time at The Galmont Hotel & Spa.

The Main Event features a huge €300,000 guaranteed prize pool, with Day 1d players required to navigate fifteen 30-minute levels to return for Day 2 on 7 January.

Each player has a starting stack of 50,000 with blinds starting at 100/100 with a 100 big blind ante. Late registration is open until the end of Level 9, with each player permitted a single reentry per flight.

The final two flights of the Main Event also take place today at 5 p.m. and 8 p.m., featuring 25-minute and 15-minute blind levels respectively, but otherwise following the same structure as Day 1d.

Days 1b and 1c took place yesterday and attracted a total of 312 entries, with 67 players finding a bag for Day 2. A total of 82 players have progressed across all completed flights thus far.

Day 1a chip leader James O’Sullivan sits atop the overall chip counts having accrued an impressive stack of 734,000, with Day 1b chip leader Cathal Shine (604,000), Kevin Hayes (554,000) and Day 1c chip leader Stephen Henderson (520,000) in hot pursuit. The current overall top ten chip stacks are detailed below.

Current Day 2 Top Ten Chip Counts

Rank	Player	Country	Chip Count	Day 2 Big Blinds
1	James O'Sullivan	United Kingdom	797,000	100
2	Cathal Shine	Ireland	604,000	76
3	Kevin Hayes	Ireland	554,000	69
4	Stephen Henderson	Ireland	520,000	65
5	Tadgh Conway	Ireland	510,000	64
6	Yue Wang	China	496,000	62
7	Shean Lai	Ireland	480,000	60
8	Andrew Hedley	United Kingdom	414,000	52
9	Justin Boyle	Ireland	405,000	51
10	Noel Murphy	Ireland	401,000	50

A number of other notable players have also qualified for Day 2, including Simon Wilson (354,000), Marc MacDonnell (168,000), Lukas Robinson (166,000), Mick Graydon (88,000) and Gary Blackwood (76,000).

Notable names who have not yet found a bag include Tom Parsons, Dara O'Kearney and EPT Prague champion Padraig O'Neill, all of whom are expected to fire another bullet today.