Athanasios Tavlas Crowned Mini Irish Open Champion 2019

While the Main Event crown at the Irish Open in Dublin was heading to China by way of Galway courtesy of Weijie Jervi Zheng, the Mini Irish Open saw a Greek player take top honours - Athanasios Tavlas emerging victorious.

Almost 400 players were vying for the Mini title at the partypoker-sponsored series, including ‘random golfers from the bar who found out the poker was happening here over the weekend’ according to the excellent tournament blog.

The €250 + €30 tournament was a Sunday and holiday Monday affair, some Main Event bustouts joining the fun and games along the way.

There was no shortage of local interest when the final table came around, although Tavlas was joined there by fellow Greek Kyriakos Mitsopoulos, as well as another ‘Chinese Irishman’ Huy Hang.

With the money getting to the serious stage, a 4-way chop was discussed, but ‘short-lived’ according to the reporters on the spot: “there was a rejection of ICM chopping (a price tag was put on this potential chop by Player X, which was not acceptable to Player Y)”.

With that potential end out of the question, play continued and eventually Athanasios Tavlas emerged victorious, his €17,830 payday an excellent return for a weekend of poker fun in Dublin.

Final results