The Gleneagle Hotel is packed with people. Outside of the poker area, there is a ballroom and multiple bars.
Some poker players are enjoying some live music in one of the bars while they are on break while others that already qualified to Day 2 are enjoying the surrounding atmosphere at the hotel and in town.
Sean Lai has been on a rollercoaster ride. In a matter of minutes, he has won two big pots and has eliminated two players.
Lai first got it all in with against the held by John Mortell on a board. Lai was still behind after the appeared on the turn, however, he eliminated Mortell when the gave him a straight.
Not too long later he got involved in another big pot against Lithuania's Mindaugas Gricius. With already a healthy amount of chips in the pot, Gricius bet 2,500 on a flop. Lai then raised to 6,000 before Gricius went all-in. Lai quickly called and turned over for top set while Gricius began shaking his head in disgust as he turned over . The on the turn and the on the river didn't help Gricius who was down below the starting stack.
After the hand, Gricius appeared dazzled and took his time to leave the table while continuing to tell Lai how lucky he was.
Meanwhile, Lai catapulted into the chip lead with 80,000 chips.
There are 80 players on the board now as the Day 1c flight gets into full swing. One of them is Damien Hogan, who played Day 1b and will be hoping his knitted woolly hat brigs him a bit more luck this time.
Day 1c of the €300,000 guaranteed partypoker Grand Prix Killarney €340 Main Event at the INEC and Gleneagle Hotel gets underway at 8:30 p.m. this evening.
Players have the same 25,000 starting stack as the other starting flights but with shorter 25-minute levels.
Late registration is open until 10:30 p.m. and once again players are allowed to re-enter once. If they have played and already made Day 2 then their best stack will be brought forward.
Day 1b is continuing and has currently reached the halfway point. The PokerNews Live Reporting team will continue to bring you coverage of both flights which you can access by clicking on the relevant tabs.
There will be one last chance to make Day 2 starting at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 9 before the start of Day 2 itself later that day.