IPT's Dara O'Kearney Secures Small Bag on Biggest Flight of Galway Poker Festival Main Event
There was a €300,000 guaranteed prize pool for the €600 Galway Poker Festival Main Event, and on Day 1e, the penultimate flight, it got smashed. A big turnout of 190 entries was recorded, narrowly beating Day 1d for the honor of being the biggest starting flight.
At the time of writing, the turbo flight Day 1f has also closed its registration with 72 entries on the clock, resulting in a total of 833 entries across all starting days. This huge field created a prize pool of €434,075, almost one and a half times more than the guarantee.
At the end of Day 1e, 49 players still had chips in front of them to put in their bags for Day 2. Among them was Irish Poker Tour Ambassador Dara O'Kearney. O'Kearney's stack climbed steadily throughout the day, but took a hit at the final few levels, resulting in him bringing 64,000 chips into the second and final day, good for just 8 big blinds.
O'Kearney found himself near the bottom of the leaderboard when Day 1e concluded, but the same could not be said for Brennan Hulbert. The Irishman ended up with 482,000 chips, ending the day as chipleader. Audrius Daugvilavicius from Lithuania was the only other player to cross the 400,000-chip mark with a bag of 432,000, while Andrew Toole completes the top three with a stack of 378,000.
Also in the top ten is the international trio of Gunnar Wedde from Norway (330,000), Juan Diaz-Caneja (320,000) from Spain, and Konrak Milkiewicz (281,000) from Poland.
End of Day 1e Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Day 2 Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brennan Hulbert | Ireland | 482,000 | 60 |
| 2 | Audrius Daugvilavicius | Lithuania | 432,000 | 54 |
| 3 | Andrew Toole | Ireland | 378,000 | 47 |
| 4 | Kyle Rafferty | Ireland | 358,000 | 45 |
| 5 | Shane Crosby | Ireland | 354,000 | 44 |
| 6 | Gunnar Wedde | Norway | 330,000 | 41 |
| 7 | Juan Diaz-Caneja | Spain | 320,000 | 40 |
| 8 | Dylan Sweeney | Ireland | 313,000 | 39 |
| 9 | Thomas Trotman-Dickenson | United Kingdom | 289,000 | 36 |
| 10 | Konrak Milkiewicz | Poland | 281,000 | 35 |
Other notables to make it through the day include Tomas "Lucky Mo" Geleziunas (260,000), Alan Kelleher (186,000), who made three Irish Poker Tour final tables last year, and Paul Leckey (180,000), who has seven-figure lifetime earnings on The Hendon Mob.
Less lucky were the likes of reigning EPT Prague champion Padraig O'Neill, Irish Poker Tour Ambassador Darren Harbinson, and Irish regulars Chris Dowling and Nicholas Newport. They all jumped into the turbo flight of Day 1f after their eliminations from Day 1e, taking one last shot at making Day 2.
At the time of writing, Day 1f is still wrapping up. As soon as the counts of that day are in, they will be posted below this recap. Day 2 starts tomorrow, Sunday, January 7 at noon local time, seeing an increased level duration of 40 minutes. Play will start at Level 16: 4,000/8,000 with an 8,000 big blind ante, and at the end of the day, a Galway Poker Festival champion will have been crowned.
Tune back in to PokerNews at that time to witness the thrilling conclusion of what has been an amazingly successful Irish Poker Tour event here in at The Galmont Hotel & Spa in Galway, Ireland.