Donnacha O'Dea Leads Irish Poker Open Finale
Monday, 6 April 2015
After three days of intense action, the final day of this year's Irish Poker Open reached a final table of nine on Sunday night and leading the way was local legend, Donnacha O'Dea.
After welcoming 321 players for the €3,500 Main Event, a stream of action over the Easter weekend saw many of the game's finest players, including Mike Sexton, Jake Cody and Steve O'Dwyer fall short of the final table and make way for the dominant O'Dea.
Pushing his way through the Monday's finale with just over 2 million chips, the veteran pro sat comfortably ahead of his closest rival, Ioannis Triantafyllakis who'd managed to rake in 1,898,000 chips.
Despite being O'Dea's first Irish Poker Open final table, he's no stranger to playing on the main stage thanks to countless appearances deep in World Series of Poker events. However, today's session won't be smooth sailing for O'Dea as he'll be flanked by some tough opposition, including Declan Connolly (playing in his third Irish Poker Open final) and UKIPT champion, Kevin Killeen.
Awaiting the eventual champion is a top prize of €250,000, but for two players there will be an additional prize of €50,000 courtesy of Paddy Power Poker's Sole Survivor bonus. The aforementioned Connolly and Triantafyllakis are the only two players left in line for this bonus and could therefore bank €300,000 if they can triumph in today's finale.
Irish Poker Open Chip Final Table Counts
Seat 1: Declan Connolly – 1,050,000
Seat 2: Donnacha O'Dea – 2,010,000
Seat 3: Kevin Killeen – 1,280,000
Seat 4: Michael Wang – 1,215,000
Seat 5: Andreas Gann – 485,000
Seat 6: Baard Dahl – 962,000
Seat 7: Fergal Cawley – 655,000
Seat 8: Ioannis Triantafyllakis – 1,898,000