Irish guy in with a great chance of winning $8.7 million in world series of poker

ILikeBananas

For the last two weeks the biggest live poker tournament in the world has been playing out in Las Vegas. 6,865 people paid $10,000 each to enter the World Series of Poker main event and now after 7 days of playing poker for 10 hours a day all but 22 have been eliminated.

At this stage the minimum any player will walk away with is over $300k and sitting in 2nd place on the leaderboard is 26 year old Eoghan O'Dea from Dublin. His father Donnacha, was a well known Irish poker player who actually made the final table for the main event twice before (albeit it when it was a far smaller tournament).

Tonight they'll play from 22 people down to 9 and if Eoghan makes it through then he'll be guaranteed $780k and will come back in November to play for the big money. Here's the payout for the final table:

1. $8.7m
2. $5.4m
3. $4m
4. $3m
5. $2.3m
6. $1.7m
7. $1.3m
8. $1m
9. 780k

leaderboard
Poker News

Here's an excerpt from an article about him from 2009:

Eoghan O'Dea is the son of World Series of Poker bracelet winner, high stakes cash game player, and former Poker Million winner Donnacha O'Dea. However, he admits to not receiving much encouragement from his old man when he was younger, and his first flirtation with poker was through the medium of a "play for fun" computer game. Unsurprisingly, and like many of his generation, the seminal show Late Night Poker gave him the bug for the game.

At the young age of 17 he admits to sneaking a few quid online and playing 10c/25c no-limit hold'em when he was in sixth year of school. This proved to be a learning process rather than a profitable venture, and it wasn't long before he found his way to Dublin's Merrion Casino where his first effort at tournament play was a winning one.

When he completed his leaving cert, he undertook a one-year tennis coaching programme - using his spare time to hone his skills both online and live. Having grinded his way to a $14,000 bankroll on PokerStars, he decided to shop around and deposited $1,000 on the CryptoLogic network.

Before long, O'Dea found himself playing the biggest games available online, turning his initial deposit into $200,000. He then moved his play to Boss Media where he admits to having an even more amazing run. He also had a short and marginally profitable stint in the 200/400 pot-limit Omaha games on Full Tilt, but decided that it wasn't a long term viable option to try and mix it with the best in the world. Instead he prefers the relative comforts of 25/50 and 10/20.

O'Dea now looks forward to repeat trips to Vegas and the bigger European festivals for some juicy cash game action, as well as continuing his online grind. Wherever the destination or whatever the game, one thing looks assured, and that is continued success at the poker felt for the young Irishman.

Here's hoping he can take it down.

Mr. Denton

I'm in with a great chance of winning €3 million this Friday when I play the lotto.

brimal

Fair play to him, hope he does well

policarp

Hope he flushes the rest of them away
and scoops the big pot...

Scuid Mhór

i'm rooting for him.

metalfest

sure after the exchange tis only €6.1M :pac:

Mr_Roger_Bongos

Is this a new a tournament format?

I thought they used to play it through from start to finish?

Your mentionned coming back in November to complete it.

pickarooney

Don't we have a poker forum?

biko

We do

From After Hours.

Jul3s

Mr_Roger_Bongos wrote: »

Is this a new a tournament format?

I thought they used to play it through from start to finish?

Your mentionned coming back in November to complete it.

If by new you mean 3 years old then yes you are correct it's a new format.

pickarooney wrote: »

Don't we have a poker forum?

biko wrote: »

We do

From After Hours.

We used to have a poker forum, but we all moved to irishpokerboards.com about 18 months ago.

Tango One

Best of Luck to Eoghan

Here's a live stream
Link

VinLieger

And hes through in 2nd position, roll on November 5th

pbowenroe

anyone know what his screename is?

BeanbagBallbag

pbowenroe wrote: »

anyone know what his screename is?

intruder123

POINTBREAK

Nice Guy, good player. Good luck to him.

a148pro

ILikeBananas wrote: »

His father Donnacha, was a well known Irish poker player

is

policarp

a148pro wrote: »

is

And his grandfather played poker too.
According to a recent radio programme.

Ardent

a148pro wrote: »

is

Came on this say this. Donnacha O'Dea IS a great poker player.

Made an awesone play on Sky's Poker Millions one year where he laid down queens to another guy's aces. His stack took a hit but he built it back to back up to book a seat at the final where he eventually beat Devilfish heads up (correct me if I am wrong someone).

GoldRush4821

This guy is an inspiration to me as a young player and to all Irish poker players I hope he wins it. Just like with Hachem in Australia, an Irish win at the WSOP will create a poker boom over here that will only benefit the game. Not to mention all the fresh fish

BeanFlicker

The final table will be played November 5-7, 2011 at the Rio in Las Vegas.

This year’s November Nine finalists are as follows:

Seat 1: Matt Giannetti (Las Vegas, NV) – 24,750,000 in chips

Seat 2: Badih Bou-Nahra (Belize City, Belize) – 19,700,000 in chips

Seat 3: Eoghan O’Dea (Dublin, Ireland) – 33,925,000 in chips

Seat 4: Phil Collins (Las Vegas, NV) – 23,875,000 in chips

Seat 5: Anton Makiievskyi (Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine) – 13,825,000 in chips

Seat 6: Sam Holden (Sussex, UK) – 12,375,000 in chips

Seat 7: Pius Heinz (Cologne, Germany) – 16,425,000 in chips

Seat 8: Ben Lamb (Tulsa, OK) – 20,875,000 in chips

Seat 9: Martin Staszko (Trinec, Czech Republic) – 40,175,000 in chips


Excellent stuff, great to see an Irishman at the final table of the wsop

3ndahalfof6

only 27 million payout on the final table is that the norm.

Mellor

policarp wrote: »

And his grandfather played poker too.
According to a recent radio programme.

His grandfather was actor Denns O'Dea. Who was in a number of films including The plough and the Stars and Darby O'Gill and the little people

GoldRush4821 wrote: »

This guy is an inspiration to me as a young player and to all Irish poker players I hope he wins it. Just like with Hachem in Australia, an Irish win at the WSOP will create a poker boom over here that will only benefit the game. Not to mention all the fresh fish

Em, there's already been an irish winner

3ndahalfof6 wrote: »

only 27 million payout on the final table is that the norm.

Only 27million??????

AstonMartin

Just thinking back to irish players who won a bracelet, how is ciaran oleary getting on these days?

zuroph

Yeah but how much did he LOSE?

BeanFlicker

As it stands:

Pius Heinz 107,800,000

Ben Lamb 55,400,000

Martin Staszko 42,700,000

Knocked Out:

4. Matt Giannetti $3,012,700

5. Phil Collins $2,269,599

6. Eoghan O'Dea $1,720,831

7. Bob Bounahra $1,314,097

8. Anton Makiievskyi $1,010,015

9. Sam Holden $782,115

http://www.wsop.com/news/2011/Nov/3600/EOGHAN-ODEA-ELIMINATED-IN-SIXTH-PLACE.html

SlowJack

BeanFlicker wrote: »

6. Eoghan O'Dea $1,720,831

Not to bad for a few days of poker....:eek: