Mark Buckley and Peter Murphy Split Dublin Cup

Friday was a busy day at the Irish Poker Festival in the luxurious Intercontinental Dublin. A total of 92 players battled it out for the Faded Spade Dublin Poker Cup with Mark Buckley eventually taking the trophy after a very amicable Heads Up deal with Peter Murphy.

Mark had the chip lead over Peter but they agreed to chop the money with the win and the trophy going to Mark as chippie. A very strong FT saw Adrian Thorne third for €6,000 and Keith Cummins fourth for €4,700. Top players Justin Boyle, Dan Rankin, Conor ‘Hammers’ O’Driscoll, Thomas Gallagher, 2023 IPF champ Michel Molenaar, and Josh Stewart completed a star-studded line-up of prizewinners.

Main Event Heads Towards Guarantee

From a relatively slow start the €700,000 Main Event gradually gained momentum and by the end of the day 168 entries had joined the previous 59 almost bringing us to the massive guarantee. With two levels of entry and re-entry available on Day 2 we should burst through the target early this afternoon.

Niels Buch still leads the field on 290,600 with Leo Worthington-Leese lying a close second on 288,700 ahead of Alec Torelli’s 268,000. Ahost of familiar names lie within striking distance including Niall Farrell, Tomás Flanagan, Noel Hayes, and Josh Stewart.

All will undoubtedly change over Day 2 with anyone still in the tournament having a great chance due to the excellent one hour blinds’ structure. A player entering at the start of today’s play still has 33 Bbs and every opportunity for glory.