Ladbrokes Irish Poker Festival Results

Oct 9, 2008

Author: Sadonna Price

The Ladbrokes Irish Poker Festival Main Event took place from October 2nd until the 5th and a record number of players were entered into the event. The capacity was raised from 625 to 750 before the tournament even began and by the time players were ready to hit the felt the number had raised to 832. This was a record for a European ranking event.

The result from so many players competing was a raise in the prize pool from 250,000 to 416,000 Euros. After three days of play the large playing field was narrowed down to eight players sitting at the final table.

Final eight seating and chips:

Seat 1: Jimmy McSweeney 2,900,000 (in chips)
Seat 2: Steve Johnson 900,000
Seat 3: Nick Heather 1,700,000
Seat 4: Hugh Whelan 700,000
Seat 5: Ian Smith 720,000
Seat 6: Barry Hand 1,000,000
Seat 7: Bo Ericshen 2,200,000
Seat 8: Andrew Roberts 2,600,000

Barry Hand would be the first player out as he called Jimmy McSweeney who went all in. McSweeney had pocket tens while Hand held A-K. McSweeney was helped on the river with a 10 and Hand was out in eighth.

Steve Johnson and Ian Smith would be the next to go in that order followed shortly by Nick Heather who went up against McSweeney. McSweeney was able to hold on again sending Heather out in fifth place.

Hugh Whelan would be put all in by Andrew Roberts and Whelan would not be able to do anything with his pocket threes so he was out in fourth.
Bo Ericshen would go up against McSweeney and would fail, heading out in third place which left McSweeney and Andrew Roberts to play head to head. McSweeney held a substantial chip lead after knocking out Ericshen and was easily able to take out Roberts.

Results: