Irish Open Qualifier's

thomaskearns

The Druid Inn
Mountmellick, Co.Laois

The Druid Inn is running an 8 week long qualifier for the Irish Open main event. The structure of the tournament is as follows. There will be 8 weekly tournaments and one final table. The winners of the 8 weekly tournaments plus the higgest ranked player from the 8 weeks will play a final table with starting stacks of 100,000 for the €4,500 seat in the main event plus 5 nights accomadation in the CityWest hotel. In the event that a player wins more than one qualifier they shall receive an additional 50,000 in their starting stack for each additional qualifier won.
*Mountmellick is located off the N7 7 miles outside Portlaoise

The 8th qualifiers will take place on the following dates:
Friday 18th January
Friday 25th January
Friday 1st February
Friday 8th February
Friday 15th February
Friday 22th February
Friday 29th February
Friday 7th March
Final table: Sunday 9th March

The Qualifier structure is as follows:

Game type: no limit hold'em

Reg: 8:00
Start: 9:00
But In: €20
Chips: 5000+500 early bird before 8:45
Max players: 95
Rebuys: None
Top ups: 1 per player during first break
Top up Cost: €10
Top up chips: 5000

Blind structure: 15 mins per level
25/50
50/100
100/200
200/400
Break:20 mins, Top up plus race 25 chips
300/600
500/1000
800/1500
1000/2000: race 100 chips
1500/3000
2500/5000
3000/6000: race 500 chips
4000/8000
5000/10000
6000/12000
7000/14000
8000/16000
10000/20000
15000/30000

Over the 8 weeks points will be awarded to each player.The highest ranking non qualifier winner will take the 9 and final seat in the final. the points structure is as follows:

1st - Automatic Qualification
2nd - 700
3rd - 600
4th - 500
5th - 400
6th - 350
7th - 300
8th - 250
9th - 225
10th - 200
11th - 175
12th - 15th - 150
16th - 19th - 125
20th plus - 100
50 additional points will be awarded to any player who tops up on any of the nights.

The structure for the final on Sunday 9th March is as follows:

Starting time: 2:00

Starting stack: 100,000
Max players: 9

100/200 : 20 min
200/400 : 20 min
300/600 : 20 min
400/800 : 20 min
500/1000: 20 min
800/1500: 20 min
Break: 20 mins race 100 chips
1000/2000 : 20 min
1500/3000 : 20 min
2000/4000: 30 min
2500/5000: 30 min
4000/8000: 30 min
5000/10000: 30 min
Break: 45 mins race 500 chips
6000/12000: 30 min
7000/14000: 30 min
8000/16000: 30 min
10000/20000: 30 min
15000/30000: 40 min
20000/40000: 40 min
25000/50000: 40 min
* This structure is subject to change as the TD see's fit.

Please post any additional question or comments.

buzz3003

Heres hoping simillar will be arranged in the limerick/kerry area with the amount of players we have in the area surely it will .

Lplate

buzz3003 wrote: »

Heres hoping simillar will be arranged in the limerick/kerry area with the amount of players we have in the area surely it will .

Graham, the Cue Club runs satellites to the Irish open every year, as well as satellites to every major tournament in Ireland. Over the coming weeks, for example, there will be a series of satellites for the European Deep Stack Championships. I will put your number on the Cue Club text alert list if you like so that you know what is upcoming. Just pm me if you want this.

Matt

buzz3003

thanks for that matt , that will be a big help .

thomaskearns

Hey guys just quick message to say if any of ye are interested in the tournament to let me know and i can hold a place for you. I've advertised this on several websites and i'm getting a very good response and expect big numbers.

please comment on the structure and if you think there is any parts which could be improved to make it a more enjoyable tournament

Rockfish

If

thomaskearns

Rockfish wrote: »

If

I'm gonna guess there was ment to be more than the above? Please dont hesitate to ask any question you may have.

thomaskearns

Week one of the qualifier took place on Friday 18th January with Mark Grenan claiming the first seat on the final table for a shot at the Irish Open ticket and 5 nights in the Citiwest hotel.

When it arrived at heads up Mark was a huge understack, he only had 64,000 compared to Fergal Moores 446,000. With the blinds at 5000/10000 mark fought back eventually winning 45 minutes after the heads up began.

Fergal was chip leader for the majority of the tournament and now holds that all important spot as the highest non-winning player in the league for that all important last place on the final table.

The full league table is attached.

The next qualifier will take place this Friday25th January. Full details are posted above.

Mont

Rockfish wrote: »

If

Ya great post this - get a life idiot

Rockfish

Mont wrote: »

Ya great post this - get a life idiot

Sorry, i had started a reply but in wrong thread so relax good lad.

thomaskearns

The Druid Inn:
Irish Open Qualifiers

As was expected the turn out for the second week of this qualifier tournament increased dramatically this week jumping from 56 to 76 and is expected to hit low 80's this coming Friday (1st Feb) as the news spreads about the low €20 entry to win an Irish Open Ticket!

This week was Dean Goode's week as he claimed his seat at the final table after a hard fought heads up battle with Cam McGettrick. With the unexpected earlier than expected elimination of some of the big hitters; Ronan Dempsey, Mark Delaney,Thomas Kearns and Robbie Hibbits it left the field wide open.

For the second time in as many weeks the heads up battle was survival of the fittest with Dean only holding about 113k compared to Cam's 610k. and with blinds of 10k/20k Dean held his nerve and waited for his hands, and began to claw his way back. After 2 double ups dean was ust edging the chip lead when he got dealth pocket 2's on small blind and limped in. Cam aloud him to see the flop unraised, it came down with 2,6,10.... after a raise from Dean Cam reraised all in and immediatley got called. Cam turned over k 10 and dint manage to hit. Cam now sits in the all important top non-winning spot in the league to secure the final seat on the final table.

The full league table is attached.
Call for details (05786) 44080

thomaskearns

The Druid Inn:
Irish Open Qualifiers

Last Friday saw the third round of the qualifier take place in The Druid with Fergal Moore going one better than his previous attempt to take the win. The tournament ran with 58 players on the night, reduced due to the bad roads that night. Fergal Moore had reached the final 2 on the first week of the qualifiers only to have a huge chip lead over turned by a determined Mark Grenan. This time Fergal went all the way to claim his spot on the final table. As the tournament began play was tight and no clear clip leader emerging before the break. With only a few casualties before the break the average chip count was lower than usual and this added pressure for players to make their moves as the blinds began to increase. Three players began to build large stacks, Ronan Dempsey, James Mulvaney and David Scully but it would be James who would take a big chip lead after eliminating Thomas Kearns after his A Q caught 2 queens to hit trips. But as the field began to decrease these players were slowly reeled in and they went to the final table along with, Anthony Heffernan, Karen Conboy, Tom Christle, Alan Mitchel, Mick Bradley and Fergal Moore with all stacks very close in size. Mick, Tom and Karen were all eliminated in the first two level s of blinds at the final table and at this stage James Mulvaney self destructed by moving all in with K 9 suited after a large raise from Ronan Dempsey in first position. Nether the K or 9 could save James and this left Ronan with a very healthy stack. As the play continued Fergal Moore was slowly losing chips and then lost a large pot leaving him with only 7k in chips left. With the blinds at 8000/16000 and the average stack over 100,000 it looked all over for Fergal but e freak mistake gave me a lifeline. Fergal on the button was all in for 7k after Ronan Dempsey had folded. Anthony on small blind for 8k folded leaving only Alan on big blind who was already in for 16k but Alan had failed to pull his cards in fully and the dealer, thinking they were the folded cards of Ronan as they were still in the middle of the table, mucked his hand. This gifted Fergal 21k which he promptly made into 63k by tripling up in the next hand and then to over 120 as he doubled up off Ronan. Fergal continued the unbelievable come back and after the fall of Anthony and Alan it was heads up with Ronan. The heads up did not last for long and ended with Ronan’s J 10 failing to hit as Fergal’s Ace high won the tournament.

thomaskearns

The Druid Inn:
Irish Open Qualifiers
Week Four Results:

We've reached the half way stage in our qualifiers with the seats on the final table going to Mark Grenan, Dean Goode, Fergal Moore and the most recent one going to John Cooper.
The tournament started with 63 players this week and strangely the first person out this week was last week’s winner Fergal Moore after is Q high straight was beaten by a K high straight. Other early unexpected departures included top of table competitors Ronan Dempsey and Dave cooper well before the break.
As the players began to fall surprisingly no clear chip leader was emerging. But instead a group of four began to break away from the pack. For the second week running James Mulvaney was in the leading group with 92,500 when we made it to the last 20 with John Cooper and Noleen Moore and Anthony Heffernan close behind but as we reached the final table the leader was Anthony Heffernan on 118,000 with James a close second on 105,000 with the average stack been 64,500.
As the final table started it was made up of Mark Turner, Declan Kinahen, Jonny Walsh, James Mulvaney, John Edwards Anthony Heffernan, John Cooper, Derek Cosgrave and David Nevin. Mark Turner was the first to be ejected from the final table, his AJ had John Edwards KQ beaten pre-flop but once John hit his 2 pair it was curtains for Mark. Next out was Declan Kinahen; his KJ could not find any luck against Derek Cosgrave’s pocket tens.
As the table progressed the blinds began to hurt the smaller stacks and forced the action. Jonny Walsh who has been the most consistent player of the qualifiers so far been the only person to get placed each week was forced all in which was called by John Edwards. Jonny turn over one of his cards to reveal a King and John Edwards also revealed a King of his own. The cards were run with only one card shown by both players and amazingly the board came 8,9,10,J,Q to give both players a straight to the king. With no flush for either player with their respective kings everyone assumed it was a slip pot until John confidently showed his other card... It was an Ace! This gave John Edwards the higher straight and Jonny was eliminated.
James Mulvaney was the next to move all in with AJ and mysteriously got called by John Cooper with Q7 who managed to get lucky and hit his Q to eliminate James. John now had a commanding chip lead.
John Edwards claimed his second scalp of the final table when he hit runner runner hearts to hit a flush against Derek Cosgrave’s pocket queens to eliminate him.
But from here on in it became the John Cooper show. Anthony was the next elimination after strangely miss-reading the board at a really bad time... with J,10 in his hand the board came with 6,6,9,9,10 but in Anthony’s mind it read 6,9,9,9,10. Thinking he hand a strong house of 9’s and 10’s, and not just 2 pair, he moved in and was called by John Cooper who had the house from the flop with 6,9 in his hand. Anthony upon see the 6 in Johns hand believed he had the higher house until he realised to his embarrassment and a large cheer from the onlookers, that he only had 2 pair not a house. Next on John’s hit list was Derek who’s A,3 could not hit against John Coopers pocket queens and this left only three left. John Edwards, John Cooper and David Nevin who managed to make it to the last 3 by been very disciplined and not getting involved in many hands during the final table. John Edwards was eliminated next with his A,10 all in raise been called by yet another pocket pair for John Cooper. This time it was four’s and they also held up for him.
This somehow allowed David to scrap into second place with barely enough in his stack to call the blinds. Against Johns monster of a stack David had little chance and when John picked up yet another pocket pair, this time 7’s, and David saw an ace it was always going to end up all in and yet again John avoided having his pocket pair out drawn to collect the win and the seat on the final table.

thomaskearns

The Druid Inn
Mountmellick, Co.Laois

We’ve reached week six of the eight week qualifier and things are certainly beginning to heat up. With over half the spots taken on the final table it was becoming tight to make it. Players on low league points had to go for broke and go for a win outright while others were just looking to continue collecting those points and work their way up the table to that elusive ninth spot for the last seat on the final table.

So far Jonny Walsh leads the chase for the ninth seat after being placed in all five qualifiers, a very impressive feat to say the least. Most players in the chasing bunch were hoping for Jonny to either slip up and exit early or to win, to open things up for the chasing group.

As the registration started it was clear it was going to be a big crowd and as the first cards entered the air we had a record crowd of 84 sitting down to do battle. Everyone seemed cautious for the first period before the break with a very small crowd been eliminated. This all changed after the break though as an “ALL IN” fever seemed to sweep through the field. Players began to fall likes fly’s all over the place and to everyones surprise, and a few peoples delight, Jonny Walsh was one of the fallers.

This opened the door for of the top runners to close the lead on Jonny and get back in the race for the ninth and final seat. Leading the chasing group, all over 300 points behind Jonny, were Cam McGettrick, David Nevin, Ronan Dempsey, William Quigley and Anthony Heffernan. When Jonny made his exit all these players were still in the game but only one truly took advantage of it as Anthony Heffernan hung on to make the final table and gain some valuable points on Jonny.

Also making the final table were Anthony McDonnell, Darragh Wheller, Roberto Cascareo, Joe Duffy, Hugh Daly, Tracey Cascareo John Edwards and after surviving a rollercoaster ride of an up and down chipstack Thomas Kearns.
From the off Anthony Mc, who had finished second the week before, was chip leader with Hugh Daly and Thomas Kearns in close pursuit. Hugh was been very active at the table taking in the blinds with some large raises on several hands. The first player to be knocked out was John Edwards as his pocket 2’s failed to hold up.

After Thomas made a standard 3 times the blind raise be was re-raised by Anthony Heffernan who went all in. Thomas had him covered but chose not to put his tournament at risk on a 50:50 and laid down his low pocket 3’s. As it turned out he would have hit trips and eliminated Anthony.

A few hands later, after Tracey C was eliminated, Thomas called another raise all in from Hugh with his pocket 6’s. Hugh managed to hit his ace but Thomas rivered a 5 to hit is straight and eliminate Hugh. Joe D, Anthony H and Roberto C were all eliminated soon after and it arrived at a the final three with Anthony Mc having over half the chips with Thomas and Darragh closely matched.
It was tight for a number of hands but then Thomas took out Darragh as his Ace Queen held up to give us our final two. After using his large chipstack well during the final table Anthony Mc had just over 400k in his second heads up battle in as many weeks and Thomas had just over 300k. What was to follow was the longest heads up battle in the history of the Druid Inn tournaments.

The battle went on for over 2 hours and the chip lead shifted more than once. After Thomas had laid down a number of blinds and was slowly falling behind he was dealt 2,8 of hearts on big blind and was allowed a free flop by Anthony Mc. The flop came A,3,5 of hearts giving Thomas a flush which he promptly checked hoping to entice a bet from Anthony who had been raising many hands previously.

Anthony checked and a forth heart came out on the turn. As Thomas raised Anthony went all in over the top which was called by Thomas. Anthony turned over his Queen of hearts and asked Thomas had he the King, with the Ace on the board it was the only card higher than his Queen, when Thomas replied “no” Anthony believed he had it won but when Thomas produced the two of hearts Anthony’s face dropped, as the turn card was the 4 of hearts which had given Thomas a straight flush!!

This tipped the tip lead firmly in Thomas’s favour with over 500k to Anthony’s 200k. Sadly for Thomas, this lead didn’t last long as only 5 hands later with Thomas been dealth Ace Queen suited failed to overcome Anthony’s pocket Kings and the lead shifted back again. The lead would shift back and forward another two times before the final hand. Thomas on small blind was dealth Ace King and, with the blinds been 15000/30000, made it eighty to play which was called by Anthony.

The flop came down 2s,2d,As. Anthony immediately raised all in and Thomas, knowing Anthony would not call a raise with a two in his hand knew he was ahead, called. Anthony turned over Q 6 of spades on a flush draw and Thomas knowing Anthony had a 35% chance of hitting his flush found himself on a knife edge. But Thomas’s calls for no spade were in vain as Anthony made his flush on the turn.

Thomas now strangely found himself calling for a spade as four spades on the board would give his King a higher flush. With any spade, Ace or 2 all been good for Thomas he had several outs but none were to come and Anthony took the victory and the seat on the final table. Thomas was clearly disappointed by the lose but can take comfort in knowing he has moved to within 350 points of Jonny for the last seat and will now be more focused than he has been in the past few weeks on those important points.

After an impressive two weeks in the top two Anthony can now relax knowing he has his seat on the final table but will surely be going for another victory and those additional chips at the final.

5starpool

thomaskearns wrote: »

Anthony checked and a forth heart came out on the turn. As Thomas raised Anthony went all in over the top which was called by Thomas. Anthony turned over his Queen of hearts and asked Thomas had he the King, with the Ace on the board it was the only card higher than his Queen, when Thomas replied “no” Anthony believed he had it won but when Thomas produced the two of hearts Anthony’s face dropped, as the turn card was the 4 of hearts which had given Thomas a straight flush!!

You shouldn't slowroll, it is really bad form.

Eldarin

how did you get on in the scalps tournament Tom???

thomaskearns

it started with 291 and was going quiet well, was down to the last 54 and chip leader at my table. the average stack was about 10k and i had about 35k. got queens under the gun and raised it up to 3200 got a caller and then a shove all in from the next guy, i called and then the third guy came along too... there was over 75k in the middle. both of them turned over AK which was great for me as they had each other outs!! considering there was only 900k in play i would of had 1/10 of the chips in play if i won the hand with still over 50 players left but the tramps turned a king on me!!!! i had about 5.5 left and shoved in the next hand with A9 and ran into JJ so game over. to make it worse the hand right before my big one the same two guys were all in against pocket jacks and they both ha AK that time too and the rivered an ace!! Two hands in a row the same two guys had AK against pockets and managed to luck out!!! some guys just have all the luck! SO SICK!!! would of walked onto the final table with that stack at that stage!!

Irish Iron

thomaskearns wrote: »

it started with 291 and was going quiet well, was down to the last 54 and chip leader at my table. the average stack was about 10k and i had about 35k. got queens under the gun and raised it up to 3200 got a caller and then a shove all in from the next guy, i called and then the third guy came along too... there was over 75k in the middle. both of them turned over AK which was great for me as they had each other outs!! considering there was only 900k in play i would of had 1/10 of the chips in play if i won the hand with still over 50 players left but the tramps turned a king on me!!!! i had about 5.5 left and shoved in the next hand with A9 and ran into JJ so game over. to make it worse the hand right before my big one the same two guys were all in against pocket jacks and they both ha AK that time too and the rivered an ace!! Two hands in a row the same two guys had AK against pockets and managed to luck out!!! some guys just have all the luck! SO SICK!!! would of walked onto the final table with that stack at that stage!!

well thomas its scully, recovered yet from that sick sick hand?
mick said you gave in to the cash table temptation, howd that go?

thomaskearns

sat down at the 1-2 table with 300 and ya wont believe what my first hand was.... POCKET QUEENS!!! i nearly got sick when i saw them after what just happened to me in the scalps! i raised and got reraised. flop came with 3 hearts on it and i had the queen of hearts. i raised and got put all in and i called, see had aces!! but i sucked out and hit my flush which was nice:D. that got me up to 610 and next hand i hit a full house and another guy had pocket kings so got another 120 out of that. got straight up and left then before something went real bad since i was still on a horrible tilt! not bad though... 2 hands for 420! cant complain

Mr.Plough

thomaskearns wrote: »

sat down at the 1-2 table with 300 and ya wont believe what my first hand was.... POCKET QUEENS!!! i nearly got sick when i saw them after what just happened to me in the scalps! i raised and got reraised. flop came with 3 hearts on it and i had the queen of hearts. i raised and got put all in and i called, see had aces!! but i sucked out and hit my flush which was nice:D. that got me up to 610 and next hand i hit a full house and another guy had pocket kings so got another 120 out of that. got straight up and left then before something went real bad since i was still on a horrible tilt! not bad though... 2 hands for 420! cant complain

Ultimate hit n run

edit - and a slowroll.

you are satan

thomaskearns

Was a nice hit and run alright.... still cant believe the beat i got though... i couldnt even sleep that night cause kept thinking about it!!! Gurrr:mad: and i didnt slowroll... i turned my hand and it just took him a bit of time to register what i had.. was funny watching his expression change actually...