12 left at Irish Winter Festival

12 left at Irish Winter Festival

Monday, 31 October 2011

All eyes will be on Niall Smyth as the paddypowerpoker.com Irish Winter Festival goes into the final day. Smyth, who has already won the Irish Open and the Ladbrokes Irish Poker Festival this year is one of the final twelve players left at the Burlington Hotel.

Smyth will return as one of the short stacks after losing a big chunk of change just before the close when his pocket queens were outdrawn by Brian Warren's pocket 8s. Given the way Smyth has run this year we wouldn't put anything past the young Irishman.


Leading the final day field is Noel O'Brien who made the final table at UKIPT Dublin earlier this year. Joining O'Brien near the top of the chip counts are accomplished Finn Ville Salmi and Chris Dowling who both have tournament earnings of six-figures. Slovenian Matej Kokalj is also well placed and will be looking to improve on his fourth place Irish Winter Festival finish in 2009.


The action resumes at 2pm with the winner set to walk away with €100,000. Join us tomorrow to see whether Smyth has completed his unprecedented Irish triple crown.


The chip counts of the remaining players are as follows:


1st – Noel O Brien – 882,000
2nd – Ville Salmi – 721,500
3rd – Chris Dowling – 715,000
4th – Matej Kokalj – 632,500
5th – John Keown – 581,500
6th – Colm Hayes – 496,000
7th – Michael Mazilu – 473,000
8th – Robert Jones – 387,000
9th – Damian Quinlivan – 305,000
10th – Niall Smyth – 249,500
11th – Brian Warren – 197,500
12th Keith Maguire – 189,500


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Tags: Irish Winter Festival, Niall Smyth, Ville Salmi, Chris Dowling, Matej Kokalj