The Irish Open is one of the most enjoyable tournaments on the poker calendar, and this year has been no different. With 708 rolling up for the Main Event, Black Belt Poker boasted numerous representatives, most notably the Dublin 3 who were fresh off battling their way through the recent Grading.
Although Owen Robinson and Simon Mairs suffered early exits, they returned the following day to offer their support to Rob Jarrett-Smith as he looked to build upon a respectable stack of 42,900. Initially, all was going to plan, and Rob was gradually creeping his way up the ladder, but half way through the day he ran into a hand cooler than a fridge in the artic.
Having called a raise from the big blind with pocket deuces, Rob checked a set on a Qd-2c-Kd flop, before check-calling bets on a Td turn and Qs river. Unfortunately, his foe had made a bigger full house with Kh-Qc, but Rob sensed he was behind, later adding: “I knew he had K-Q, I just knew it, and I even said, 'I know this is going to look really nitty but I'm sure you have K-Q.'" Down to just 15,000, Rob exited soon after, running tens into the jacks of Black Belt’s very own Jen Mason.
Talking about Jen, she was fast becoming a real contender, and bashing her male opponents up like Lennox Lewis in a bad mood. She spent multiple hours on the feature table, and the commentary team were continually singing her praises. She may have eliminated one opponent with flopped quads versus a rivered straight, but she also made a terrific call with ace high to prove that she’s more than just a reporter. Sadly, she ran out of steam a little towards the end of the day, and as Day Three beckoned, little changed, her swan song coming with K-Q running into T-T in a battle of the blinds. Still, Jen made the money, taking home €5,500 for 53rd.
Also making it through to Day Three was Nik Persaud, who’d finished Day Two the same way Jen had started it. On the final hand of the night, he ran 8c-4c into the Kd-2d of Janne Nevalainen and Ad-Kc of Paddy Hicks on a Td-8d-4d flop. But despite the flopped flush, the turn came a Tc followed by a dramatic Ts river to award Persaud the pot, and Hicks the door. "I remember him patting Paddy Hicks on the back and saying bad luck," told Cos Paparestis in reference to the 79-year old fan favourite. "I said, 'Don't do that, you might kill him!'"
The next day, Nik arrived in confident mood, mustard keen to make his first major final. Initially, he looked like he might do just that, but just as he was building momentum and inching closer to securing that final table place, he crossed swords with then chip leader Santeri Valikoski.
With Yann Dion (who, incidentally, would later become the final table bubble) raising to 35,000 and Valikoski calling one seat along, Nik looked down at kings in the big blind and made it 115,000 to play. Dion folded, but the Finn made the call. The Ac-Js-6h flop went check-eheck, only for Nik to check-call a bet of 100,000 on the Jd turn. The river was the Qd, and after Nik had checked, Valikoski took one look at the dealer and announced all-in. Before the words had barely left Valikoski’s mouth, Nik made the call, only to be shown Qc-Jc for the full house. €18,300 for 15th seemed tasty on the surface, but provided little in the way of consolation to a clearly devestated Nik Persaud.
Meanwhile, James Mitchell, who’d started the day in third place, was enjoying fruitful times at the feature table, eliminating players such as Maurice Whelan with A-Q versus A-6. Most of James’ chips, however, had come from an epic encounter with Martin Hanitz. With the flop reading 3s-8c-6s, James led for 70,000, only for the Norwegian to move all in for half a million. James made the call with Qs-Qd; Hanitz tabled As-Js. Although vulnerable, James was able to dodge the numerous outs like an Olympic gymnast, the turn and river coming 4h and Tc respectively to send Hanitz home.
So, as we head into the final day, James Mitchell sits in third place with an incredible 1,155,000 in chips and is in with a great chance of emulating Neil Channing’s 2008 achievement of becoming Irish Open Champion. However, it won’t be easy, as in the final are the likes of Ben ‘The Gentleman’ Roberts and online pro Rob Sherwood, who also collected €100,000 by becoming the Paddy Power Sole Survivor. As one Neil Channing might say, “Must be nice.”
Seat 1: Peter Murphy -- 546,000
Seat 2: Ben Roberts -- 419,000
Seat 3: Edmund Sweeney -- 407,000
Seat 4: Santeri Valikoski -- 1,722,000
Seat 5: Rob Sherwood -- 497,000
Seat 6: Paul Carr -- 1,596,000
Seat 7: James Mitchell -- 1,155,000
Seat 8: Declan Connolly -- 735,000
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