Friday, 29th March 2024 06:51
Home / Uncategorized / PokerStars Festival Dublin: MacIntyre on top in the High Roller; Silver going for gold

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It’s the business end of the festival here in Dublin and they’ll be five trophies handed out on the final day of proceedings. Whilst the €130,410 that the Main Event will receive will be the largest prize awarded today, the spoils on offer in the €2,000 High Roller are not to be sniffed at.

By the time late-registration closed last night 85 players had taken a shot or shots – it was a single re-entry event – at the High Roller. Jake Cody, Niall Farrell and Will Kassouf were a trio of top poker talent who found themselves out of the running. By play’s close just 20 remained and Max Silver was top of the pile. He and his wife are expecting their first baby any day now so this is likely the last live tournament Silver will be attending for a while.

The 20 players who returned today were all hoping to get their hands on a first prize of €45,340, only the top 11 would make the money, with a min-cash worth €4,120. It wasn’t to be for Maria Konnikova or Ludovic Geilich as both fell early on Day 2. With 13 players left – just one away from the bubble – this is how things shaped up.

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Ludovic Geilich

Table Seat Name Country Chips
1 1 Hans Jorg Tangermann Germany 144,000
1 2 Fabian Gumz Germany 300,000
1 3 Helio Bandeira Brazil 65,000
1 4 Max Silver United Kingdom 144,000
1 5 Orpen Kisacikoglu Turkey 110,000
1 6 Thomas Dunwoodie United Kingdom 175,000
1 7 Gaetano Brignone Italy 87,000
2 1 William Prosser United Kingdom 120,000
2 2 Fraser MacIntyre United Kingdom 505,000
2 3 Daniel Nietrzebka Poland 255,000
2 4 David Borkowski Poland 163,000
2 5 Peter Eichhardt Sweden 260,000
2 6 Li Zikai Germany 192,000

Scotland’s Fraser MacIntyre was sitting atop the chip counts and said, “I’ve just been chipping up and playing well.” The bubble was officially upon the final dozen when Orpen Kisacikoglu fell in thirteenth place. In his exit hand the action folded to Silver in the small blind and he set Kisacikoglu all-in for an effective 15 big blinds. Kisacikoglu called off with Qx-Jx and couldn’t overtake Silver’s Ax-7x.

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Kisacikoglu soft bubbled

Blinds at this stage were 2,500/5000 ante 500 so the stacks were still deep and it took 40 minutes for the bubble to burst. During those 40 mintues there were numerous all-ins, but no calls. There were by now a number of players in the danger zone. With just 40,000 Gaetano Brignone was the shortest of all, but Helio Bandeira (75,000), Daniel Nietrzebka (75,000) and William Prosser (88,000) were all sitting with less than 20 big blinds.

Hand for hand was, of course, in play at this point but there was no stalling and play was being condcuted at a normal pace. Then, after 40 minutes of inaction the bubble burst. The hand started with a raise on the button to 10,000 from Silver, Brignone shoved for 39,000 from the big blind and action was back on Silver. There was no snap call from Silver, instead he thought it through before flicking in the call. “You’re ahead,” he said laughing, before adding. “I hope I’ve got two live cards.” It was clear that Silver had made a somewhat loose call, but we’d have to wait to see how light he’d called Brignone’s shove as there was still action at the other table.

Once that was over the cards were exposed:

Silver: J3
Brignone: AK

“One of the classics,” joked Silver as they waited for the flop. It fell Q67. “Four please,” asked Silver and the dealer layed the 4 on the turn. “Five please,” said Silver. “You’ve got to ask,” he said to the table. And, as if by magic, the dealer turned over the 5 on fifth street! It was brutal way for Brignone to bust and the rest of the players couldn’t quite believe what had just happened.

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Silver’s card calling magic helped burst the bubble

The remaining 11 players are now all in the money and this is what they’re playing for.

POS NAME COUNTRY PRIZE DEAL
1     € 45,350  
2     € 32,240  
3     € 21,110  
4     € 16,240  
5     € 12,860  
6     € 10,060  
7     € 7,920  
8     € 6,180  
9     € 4,700  
10     € 4,120  
11     € 4,120

Depsite Silver knocking out the last two players, MacIntyre still leads but Silver is gunning for the gold.

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MacIntyre leads the High Roller

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