Gary McGinty Wins PokerStars Festival Dublin Main Event For €91,808

6 years ago
Gary McGinty Wins PokerStars Festival Dublin Main Event For €91,808
10:30
03 Oct

An ‘unstoppable rampage’ is how Gary McGinty’s run to the PokerStars Festival Dublin Main Event title was described, the 29-year old Meath man topping the leaderboard from noon to night-time on the final day and walking off with the biggest payday of his life – the €91,808 more than doubling his overall tournament earnings.

“It's fantastic," McGinty said afterwards. "There were parts of the day where it was a grind, for sure, but I ran pretty well and I'm happy with how I played. I won some nice all-ins and I've got the trophy now, and that's all that matters."

The €1100 buy-in Main event had seen 544 entries (which included 148 re-entries) producing a prizefund of €679,000 and attracted a field from all across Europe, including the former World Snooker champion Stephen Hendry, the Scotsman swapping baize for felt to cash for €2,510.

It soon became the McGinty show, however, with his heads-up opponent Jim O'Callaghan telling him: "You played brilliantly", after losing out at the final hurdle, the top 4 having made a deal which left €13,000 to play for along with the much-desired PokerStars Festival trophy. This is how deal-making looks in the Emerald Isle…

As the PokerStars blog explained: ‘Four-handed deals don't tend to happen very often. There always seems to be at least one person who wants more and others who are unprepared to give up a chunk.’

With the stacks fairly even, ‘O'Callaghan and Prendiville almost immediately said they would agree to an ICM chop, then O'Callaghan said to McGinty: "Are you OK with ICM Gary?" McGinty maybe thought about hard-balling, but didn't let on. He swiftly said, "Yeah." And after the Italian tournament staff explained the situation to Merone, he was on board too.’

When it was just McGinty and O’Callghan left, the County Meath man held a 5:1 chip lead, O'Callaghan admitted that he was ‘a massive underdog’. When he got his remaining chips in the middle and showed down Q♠6♣ McGinty was a big favourite holding K♣J♥ and the board didn’t change that, McGinty and his fans on the rail leaping in the air in celebration.


 

1Gary McGinty
€91,808*
2Jim O'Calaghan
€74,797*
3Antonio Merone
€78,554*
4Sean Prendiville
€71,161*
5Ivan Tononi
€35,780
6Declan Connolly
€28,110
7Mick Graydon
€20,980
8Alexander Bretherton
€14,530
9Noel McMahon
€11,480

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Andrew from Edinburgh, Scotland, is a professional journalist, international-titled chess master, and avid poker player.Read more

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