Well deserved break..

As the players depart for a well deserved break I have a feeling this bar is going to get a bit busier over the course of the next 15 minutes.

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4 hours down the line...

 The blinds have just risen to 150-300 (ante 25). The average stack is around the 23k mark. There are a total of 11,380,00 chips in play. In a little over a couple of days all those chips will belong to one lucky winner. Play is set to continue to approx 2am UK time so stay tuned for further updates. We should be able to let you know who the chip leaders are in the morning.

Prizes

Now what all the players are playing for...

1st - €70,000
2nd - €45,000
3rd - €30,000
4th - €20,000
5th - €15,000
6th - €12,000
7th - €9,000
8th - €7,000
9th - €5,000
10th - €3,000
11th - 18th - €2,000
19th - 27th - €1,750
28th - 36th - €1,500
37th - 45th - €1,250
46th - 57th - €1,000

Numbers Confirmed

Registration is now closed and we can confirm a total number of 569 making a total prizepool of €284,500 and a tasty €70,000 for the winner.

More Day One Photos

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500 remain..

And here is an updated list of day 1 departures:

Derry O'Sullivan
Matthew Miners
Kenneth O'Regan
Dave Browne
Terry Taylor
Allen Mclean
Dean Bloomfield
Niall Higgens
Chris Pyke
Mizanur Rahman
Colin Hammond
Matthew Kerry
Haulie Ryan
Joe Byrne
Sean Repton
Don O'Riordan
Noel O'Brian
Simon Jude
Richard Pearson
David O'Mahony
Liam Thick
Richie O'Sullivan
Greer Gardiner
Eamon Rheinisch
Thomas Heffernan
Daniel Fox
Andrew Thornton
Olive Morlon
Ali Duncan
Eddie Doyle
Finbar Lynes
Patrick Donegan
Paul Doyle
Frank Nielsen

Better luck next time guys! :)

Stumbled across a huge pot..

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We were having difficulties coming across the bigger pots that we could deem worthy of blogging about, until now. Jack McDermott over on table 35 just took down a big pot with a Q high straight, helped out by a generous river card. He now holds one of the more impressive chip stacks almost trebling up to 60k. Good work!

Lars Torngren interview

Last year's Champion Lars Torngren walked away with a cool €75k back in 2010. He is back and means business at Killarney 2011. We interviewed him earlier today, where he reflects upon his huge win and how he thinks this year's event is panning out.

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We've lost...

..the following players...

Gerard Keenan
Gerard Cosgrave
Brian Mullen
Brendan Reany
Daniel Bradley
Pat Fogarty
Richard Fernades
Shane McGory
Nicolas Flores
Conor Mcloughlin
Oliver Parlon
William Langton
Dominic Wilcok

Photo time

Diarmuid Ryan

Matz Lindman

Markus List

Daniel Pridham

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Defending Champion...

Lars Torngren is slowly building his 20k stack, currently sitting with 20.1k in chips! To revisit an earlier blog, our 'chip and chair' player has managed to claw back into a decent position from having only 250 chips to over 12k in chips! Coincidence, he is sitting to the right of Lars Torngren so it could lead to some interesting hands over the course of the evening






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Break time...

...and a chance for our Main Event entrants to squeeze in a cigarette, perhaps a toilet break or just an opportunity to discuss tactics amongst each other. 15 minutes before they are due back at the tables. Out of the 540 that entered 531 remain. Blinds after the break will climb up to 75 - 150.

Big fold

Over on table 4 Anthony Flood took his time deliberating a re-raise of his 3k bet with 10s Kd Qs 5d on the board. He was raised to 8k which after consideration he decided not to match, folding and showing his off-suite AK!

England v Ireland v Scandi Video

Video from last night's €20 Buy-in Invitational

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More faces...

Michaela Kalmar

Jack McDermott

Laddies Pro Jon 'skalie' Kalmar

Louise Duffy

Alan Trueick

Richard Clarke

Kim Wheatley

Paul 'ActionJack' Jackson

Some faces for you...

Joe Laming

Ben Jackson

Richard  Sinclar

Ville 'appleb1te' Vainio

Julian Thew

Paul McCann

Max 'Happymaxy' Winberg

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Change of fortune

Our early 'chip and a chair' player has managed to triple his 250 chips. He was superstitious about counting his chips during a game but simple mathematics applied means he now has around 700 chips. The river card gave  his J,6 suited the flush he needed, after shoving on the flop.

We now have our first casualty...

We regret to inform we have lost our first player, Brenda Foley. Her house of tens was no match versus a house of jacks and she's been sent to the rail. Luckily for her Ladbrokes are in a generous mood and have given her a free buy-in to tomorrow's €270 + €30 Buy-in Side Event. We hope her luck improves for tomorrow!

First casualty...nearly.

First hand and we very nearly had our first casualty. Two players got it all in on a board of 5 8 8 A 9, one player holding AA and the other Q8. The player with Q8 has 250 chips left. Chip and a chair!

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Shuffle up and deal!

The Main Event has just kicked off here in Killarney. Each player starts with 20k chips with blinds starting at 25-50. Level's go up every hour. We're pretty sure we hit the guarantee. We will confirm the actual numbers shortly

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Just under an hour to go!

There are over 20 Ladbrokes staff here in Killarney so any questions you have regarding the event or about Ladbrokespoker.com then please feel free to come and speak to us.

Just a few of the lovely ladies from Team Ladbrokes

England v Ireland v Scandi

Last night we held what some may say the most important event in Killarney in history EVER - this is of course the England v Ireland v Scandi €20 Buy-in Invitational!

Last year's winner Lars playing for the Scandi Team

Despite the amount of alcohol consumed understandably all players don't take playing for their countries lightly and all teams were fighting hard for the title...

Louise Duffy for Team England

The Super 'Turbo' Event came to a close at 2am which saw Team England (or 'Team Duffy' known to some, or one...) win the prestigious title. Congratulations England!! 

Super Sat

The Ladbrokes.com Irish Poker Festival in Killarney started with a bang!

Yesterday we saw 180 players turn up for the Main Event Super Satellite. Ladbrokes guaranteed 20 seats but with the massive unexpected turnout a total of 39 tickets were rewarded. Congratulations to all 39 players and best of luck in the Main!

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Hello Killarney!!

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Super Satellite lives up to its name.

The Super Satellite looks set to continue into the early morning hours with over 140 players remaining after 2 hours of play. The announcer has confirmed that a massive 39 tickets to the Main Event are now up for offer. All still to play for! A video blog covering Day 1 events coming soon...

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The €50 satellite...

...to the Main Event is well under way. Over 160 hopefuls are grinding away in hope of securing one of the 20 Main Event seats, and a chance to deprive Lars Torngren of his title.

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Calm before the storm...

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We're here!

The Ladbrokes Team have arrived in Killarney and boy, are we excited.

We've already spotted some big names such as legend Paul 'ActionJack' Jackson, EPT winner Julian Thew and last year's Irish Poker Festival winner Lars Torngren and we're expecting more!

Don't forget tonight at 1930 tonight there will be a Super Satellite where we'll be guaranteeing 20 Seats to tomorrow's Main Event. So if you're yet to secure a cheap seat or don't fancy buying in directly then why not give it a go.

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Just 2 days!

Only two days till the Main Event kicks off!

Check out footage from last year's Day 2 here

Don't forget for those of you who are in Killarney tomorrow and yet to secure your Main Event seat then there's a Super Satellite starting at 1930 BST. It's a €50 + €10 Rebuy and we will be guaranteeing 20 seats. For more info click here

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Four days to go...

Only four days to go till the Irish Poker Festival Main Event.

Here's some video footage from last year's Day 1 to give you a taster for what's in store...

Direct buy-ins for the main event are available at the venue (Gleneagles/INEC) on Friday Sept 30th September until 19:00 and there is also a main event super satellite at the INEC on Thursday 29th September, 19:30 with 20 main event seats guaranteed. Click here for more information.
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Last Chance to Qualify

This Thursday 22nd September will be your last chance to qualify for a Main Event seat online. The €50 + €5 rebuy takes place at 20:20 UK Time this Thursday and Ladbrokes Poker are guaranteeing 15 Seats to the Main Event!

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Welcome!

Welcome to the Ladbrokes Irish Poker Festival Live Event Blog!

The €250,000 Guaranteed Main Event is just over a week away and we hope you're as excited as everyone here at Ladbrokes HQ. Last year saw 633 players turn up for the Main Event as well as plenty of action in our side events. We saw an exciting mix of local Irish folk, online heroes and a huge group of Nordic and International friends last year and we expect the same this year! We're also happy to report that last year's winner Lars Torngren from Sweden who took home a staggering €75,000 will be back in Killarney to defend his title.