Day One of the 2012 Irish Poker Open is in the books, with Canada’s Samuel Chartier taking the honors of the chip lead over the sizeable field in Dublin.
The tournament room at the Burlington Hotel was replete with the green colors of tournament sponsors PaddyPowerPoker as the cards hit the air on Friday afternoon. In attendance to defend his title was native son Niall Smyth as well as every competitor from the “iSeriesLIVE” special event that had concluded just hours before. Champion James Dempsey, runner-up David “Devilfish” Ulliott, Phil Hellmuth and Daniel Negreanu were some of the names from the “iSeriesLIVE” tournament and they were joined by a host of fellow poker professionals. Xuan Liu, Barny Boatman, Roberto Romanello, Kevin MacPhee and Dominik Nitsche (among others) took their places at the felt, looking to take down the second oldest championship in tournament poker.
From the start, things were rough for not only the amateurs in the field but the pros as well. Former World Champion Dan Harrington drew fellow pros Freddy Deeb and Max Silver on his table, while Romanello was joined by Carlos Mortensen. Hellmuth had to face two English pros, Ross Boatman and Bruce Atkinson, as he made his usual late appearance to the opening level.
By the time late registration had concluded, the total field size had grown to 502 players and built a prize pool of just over €1.6 million, with the top 54 players receiving something for their work. First place will walk off with an impressive €420,000 for their efforts over the Easter weekend.
For many of the pros in the field, however, today’s action will be a day of watching from the rail rather than battling for the crown. Negreanu never could find any traction during Friday’s action, hovering around his 20,000 chip starting stack for much of the day. After surviving the dinner break, Negreanu found his way to the door after he took on Kenneth Hicks’ pocket tens. Holding Big Slick, a ten on the flop improved Hicks to a set and a pairing Queen on the turn filled his boat, eliminating Negreanu before the end of play on Friday.
The most interesting story of Friday was Hellmuth. After making his usual late arrival to the start of the action on Friday, the 1989 World Series of Poker Championship Event winner also failed to come back for action after his dinner break. As his chips slowly were blinded down, the “Poker Brat” made an appearance for approximately the final hour of play. Hellmuth explained what happened to him over his Twitter account.
“Don’t play tourney when (you’re) jet lagged,” Phil sagely Tweeted to his followers before heading back to the felt. “Went to dinner at 6:50PM, came back 11:25PM! Nap seemed like a good idea at the time.” Hellmuth made the most of that short session, finishing the day with over 33,000 in chips after blinding away almost 10K during his nap.
After the final hand of the day, Chartier had seized the chip lead with an impressive 136,800 in chips. Chartier, who has over $1.3 million in earnings in his tournament career, will face challenges from Belgium’s Kevin Vandersmissen (110,825) and France’s Arnaud Mattern (97,375), who always seems to be in the mix in a European tournament. Other making it through the Day One carnage were JP Kelly, Julian Thew, 2011 WSOP Championship Event final tablist Eoghan O’Dea, Ulliott, Deeb and Mortensen, while Padraig Parkinson, 2011 Irish Poker Open runner-up Surinder Sunar, Michael Tureniec, MacPhee and our defending champion Smyth will take a seat on the rail.
With 277 players coming back for action on Saturday, the chances of the players getting to the money today are going to be tough. Sunday will whittle the survivors from today’s play down to the final table, with a champion determined on Monday.
