Home / Poker News April 2010 / Irish Poker Open – James Mitchell wins
Irish Poker Open – James Mitchell wins
Posted by: Randy Williams - Tue, 2010-04-06 04:18
Day 4 of the 2010 Irish Poker Open would see the final act of a 708-player drama unfold, and was it ever a spectacle worthy of attending...when the dust settled in the wake of operation “Final Table”, James Mitchell was the only player left standing, a wide grin on his face, a weird-looking trophy is his hand and a €600k check in his pocket.
On his path to live poker tournament glory though, Mitchell had countless perils to deal with. The final table exploded into action as soon as the first cards hit the felt. Peter Murphy was the first to hit the rail, heading to the payout booth to pick up his €56k. He got a tad unlucky in his last hand as his As,Ks failed to hold up against Murphy’s Kh, 10h.
Declan Connoly was the next player to go, his Ad,Kd no good against Paul Carr’s pocket 10s.
It was Edmund Sweeney’s K,4o’s turn to succumb to Ben Roberts’ A,10o next. Roberts couldn’t enjoy the chips gained through this elimination though. He was next to hit the rail, as his Q,J fell to Santeri Valikoski’s A,K.
Rob Sherwood had already picked up €100k the previous day, for being the last standing
online poker qualifier. Though he’d started Day 4 on a relatively short stack, he managed to hang on all the way to 4th place. His demise came at the hands of Paul Carr, whose As,10s made short work of Sherwood’s K,Qo.
Three handed play raged on for a while, each of the three remaining survivors proving coutless times that they were indeed entitled to do battle at this level. Eventually, it was start of the day chip leader, Santeri Valikoski who bowed out. Having been reduced to a short-stack, Valikoski shoved all-in on a 10s, 5s, to be called by Mitchell, whose K,3 caught a K on the river to make a pair.
The heads-up stage of the
poker tournament between Carr and Mitchell lasted for quite a while. The turning point came when Mitchell’s As,6s managed to get the better of Carr’s Q,Q, on the river. A few hands later, it was all over. The final hand saw Mitchell’s Ah, 8h going up against Carr’s Q,5o on a flop of J,J,8. The turn and the river changed nothing and a new champ was crowned.
