Irish Open final table set – Newcastle's Ian Simpson leads

Irish Open final table set – Newcastle's Ian Simpson leads

Monday, 9 April 2012

The paddypowerpoker.com Irish OpenIrish Open starting field of 502 has been whittled down to a final table of nine with Ian Simpson in pole position for the €420,000 first prize. The Newcastle man starts the final day with 2,007,000 chips putting him just ahead of David Dean who returns with 1,986,000.

The most familiar face of the final table is Andy Black. The 2005 WSOP Main Event fifth place finisher eliminated Freddy Deeb while compiling a stack of 808,000, good enough to put him safely in the middle of the pack. The other most notable name still in the hunt for the big money is Kevin Vandersmissen. The Belgian has a string of excellent results on the European circuit including a victory in the Full Tilt Series Barcelona and a runner up finish in the EPT Snowfest.
The big story going into the penultimate day in Dublin was Phil Hellmuth but unfortunately for the Brat, his Irish Open ended prematurely when his pocket kings were outrun by Kenneth Hicks' AQ. The other big casualties were James Dempsey in 34th and Freddy Deeb in 27th.


The nine remaining players are guaranteed at least €23,000 with paddypowerpoker.com qualifiers Ian Simpson and Andrew Magennis battling it out for the €100,000 Sole Survivor bonus package in addition to their Main Event score. The action resumes at 2pm.


The chip counts and seat draw are as follows:


Seat 1: Ian Simpson (2,007,000)
Seat 2: David “Dixie” Dean (1,986,000)
Seat 3: Thomas Beer (1,319,000)
Seat 4: Kevin Vandersmissen (492,000)
Seat 5: Andrew Black (808,000
Seat 6: Philip Magennis (632,000)
Seat 7: Samuel Chartier (582,000
Seat 8: Steve Watts (1,519,000)
Seat 9: Jordan Lewis (685,000)



Tags: Irish Open, Andy Black, Phil Hellmuth, Ian Simpson, Kevin Vandersmissen, Freddy Deeb, James Dempsey