Pablo Silva Ships the Irish Open Online Main Event For €462,100 (~$494,447)

The novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has forced the majority of the world population into lockdown, at least for the foreseeable future. With all live poker operations coming to a standstill, tournament brands like the World Poker Tour (WPT), Triton Poker, World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC), and many others have had to either cancel or postpone their scheduled stops. In fact, some brands like the WPT and WSOPC were quick to seize the opportunity and move the live stops online.

Among many such operators to make the shift online was the longest-running poker tournament in Europe, the Irish Poker Open. While the stop was initially scheduled to be held in Dublin at the Citywest Hotel, it was moved online to partypoker because of the unforeseen circumstances surrounding the COVID-19 crisis.

The 22-event series ran from April 6-12 on partypoker. The main attraction of the series, the €1,100 Main Event €1,000,000 GTD, featured four starting flights that logged in a total of 2,945 participants (Day 1A – 831, Day 1B – 793, Day 1C – 824, and Day 1D – 497) between them, collecting a prize pool worth €2,945,000, almost 3X the posted guarantee.

Brazil native, Pablo Silva (cover image), was the last player standing in the event after defeating Andras Nemeth heads-up and won €462,100 (~$494,447) in prize money. This victory brought him his second-biggest score this year. The $1 Million that he won at the partypoker MILLIONS South America Main Event in February being his biggest payday of 2020.

The field was replete with poker superstars with the likes of Aymon Hata, Scott Margereson, Elio Fox, Sam Higgs, Romain Lewis, and Mark Radoja, all in attendance. Warren Aspey ended up hitting the rail on the money bubble, assuring the remaining 408 players a payday worth €2,150 at least.

Stefan Jedlicka, Joey Weissman, Harry Lodge, and Mustapha Kanit, all min-cashed for €2,150.

Others like Juha Helppi (55th for €6,567), Dermot Blain (111th for €4,211), Sam Grafton (147th for €3,622), Anatoly Filatov (185th for €2,768), Kristen Bicknell (219th for €2,503), Sam Greenwood (221st for €2,503), Dan Smith (242nd for €2,503), Matthias Eibinger (280th for €2,415), Davidi Kitai (299th for €2,327), Juan Pardo (340th for €2,268), and Jeff Gross (359th for €2,209) fell out to the rail on Day 2.

Fifty-one players came back on Day 3 with Sihao Zhang starting out as the overall chip leader. Zhang kept the advantage all the way through to the start of the eight-handed final table ahead of the eventual winner Pablo Silva and runner-up Andras Nemeth.

Final Table Recap

Shaun Conroy was the first player to depart on the final table when his ace-queen ran into Pablo Silva`s queens. Silva’s queens won him the chip lead.

Next in line was Canadian poker pro and Twitch streamer Parker ‘tonkaaaaP’ Talbot whose pocket queens got terribly unlucky against Zhang`s ace-ten. The board gave trip tens to Zhang, eliminating Talbot in seventh place.

After Talbot, it was the 2013 EPT Barcelona Main Event winner Tom Middleton’s turn to join the rail in sixth place.

The last Irishman in the field, Gerard Finlay, was the next one on the chopping block when his queens lost the flip to Zhang’s ace-king. An ace on the flop ended Finlay’s deep run in fifth place.

Pablo Silva was still in the lead and extended it further after eliminating fellow Brazilian Eduardo Silva in fourth place. Sihao Zhang`s third-place elimination set the heads-up play in motion.

It took an hour of heads-up play to find a champion! Pablo Silva, who had started off with a 2:1 lead over Andras Nemeth, was the one holding all the chips in play at the end. On the final hand, Nemeth moved all-in on the board , with holding the top two pair. Silva called with for a straight. The on the river blanked for Nemeth confirming Silva as the champion!

Congratulations to Pablo Brito Silva for winning the Irish Poker Open Main Event for €462,000! What a year Pablo is having as he was also the #MILLIONSSouthAmerica Main Event champion in February!😮 pic.twitter.com/2vlcWtw7rA

— PartyPoker (@partypoker) April 13, 2020

Final Table Results (EURO)

1. Pablo Silva – €462,100
2. Andras Nemeth – €325,423
3. Sihao Zhang – €210,723
4. Eduardo Silva – €139,004
5. Gerard Finlay – €96,302
6. Tom Middleton – €65,821
7. Parker Talbot – €45,648
8. Shaun Conroy – €29,097

Content & Images Courtesy: PokerNews