Jude Ainsworth Wins the Party Poker Irish Championship

Saturday, January 12, 2008 | Francis Lee

The Radisson Hotel in Galway hosted the Party Poker Irish Poker Championships with the three day main event starting on the 4th January. Around 350 players entered the €2,000 buy in main event battling for the €180,000 fist place prize. Some of the top players around the world were in attendance making this a very tough field to get through.

There were 18 players left in the event at the start of the third day and it took nearly three hours for us to reach the final table, which was just eight seats than the normal nine or ten seater table. The official chip rankings at this final stage was as follows.

Final Table Chip Rankings:

• 1st Keith McFadden £696,000
• 2nd Jude Ainsworth £485,000
• 3rd Trevor Dineen £412,000
• 4th Michael Moran £374,000
• 5th Tommy Watson £296,000
• 6th Bernard Brady £294,000
• 7th Glen McCabe $235,000
• 8th Michael McCool £222,000

Bernard Brady was the first player to be eliminated from this final table in a three way pot up against Michael McCool and Jude Ainsworth. Ainsworth lead out with a $50,000 raise and after McCool and Brady called the Flop came down McCool moved All In, Brady called and Ainsworth folded. McCool had looking for a flush and Brady tabled pocket Nines. The didn’t help McCool and Brady was looking good to take down the pot until the fell on the River giving McCool trip Fours. Brady colleted £12,000 for finishing 8th

Keith McFadden had lead the chip rankings from day one of this event, but lost this lead early on in this final table loosing with pocket Kings against Tommy Watson who had Watson hit an Ace on the Turn and this was good enough to take down the pot and elevate him into the lead.

Shortly after this Watson increased his lead by knocking out Glen McCabe sitting on pocket Aces up against McCabe hit a King on the River to give himself a slight chance but one of the five outs he was looking for never came, sending him out in 7th place winning £15,000.

The long time chip leader Keith McFadden at this point found himself on the short stack and decided to make a stand when picking up He was called by Jude Ainsworth in a dominant position with The final board came down confirming McFadden’s exit in 6th place, This win moved Ainsworth up past the £1 million in chips mark.

Michael Moran was the next player to go whilst getting caught trying to bluff the pot from Michael McCool after the flop came down McCool called Moran’s All In bet with pocket Sevens and was relieved to see Moran table Moran didn’t catch an Ace or Eight on the last two cards ending his tournament in 5th place.

It didn’t take long before we were heads up as Jude ainsworth eliminated two players in quick succession. First he eliminated Trevor Dineen on the short stack beating with Just a few hands later he beat Tommy Watson with against Watson was ahead after the first four cards came down but the completed Ainsworth’s flush to take down the pot.

Ainsworth had just over £1.7 million in chips at the start of heads up and wasn’t too far ahead of McCool on £1.3 million. Heads up didn’t last very long as Ainsworth dominated play and finished the event off in just four hands. Ainsworth won the last hand with pocket Fives, which held up against after a possible dimond flush draw after the flop came down No more diamonds came handing Ainsworth the IPC championship and the £180,000 first place prize.

Final Standings:

• 1st Jude Ainsworth £180,000
• 2nd Michael McCool £100,000
• 3rd Tommy Watson £60,000
• 4th Trevor Dineen £35,000
• 5th Michael Moran £25,000
• 6th Keith McFadden £18,000
• 7th Glen McCabe £15,000
• 8th Bernard Brady £12,000

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