Swinarski Power-lifts His Way to Main Event Title

Former power-lifter Konrad Swinarski bullied his way to the $47,064 first prize at Dublin’s IPO yesterday, seeing off the challenge of fellow German Christian Böcher heads-up to secure the title.

The $250 Full Tilt International Poker Open (IPO) Main Event had seen 1498 entries creating a prize-pool of some $326,564, with 151 making the money. Four starting flights on Saturday at Dublin’s Regency Hotel Events Centre, a short trip from the heart of Dublin. saw 473 ‘survivors’ and when the day 2 bubble burst on Sunday with a $500 minimum cash, chaos ensued as the post-bubble all-ins flowed.

Once the field - which had attracted many Dutch, French, Belgian and German players to Dublin - had been whittled down to just two, it was up to Swinarski and Böcher to keep the crowd interested, which they did with a see-saw heads-up battle. According to the Full Tilt report, “Swinarski and Böcher developed such a rapport during the final that the last hand ended with a hug when Swinarski won the Bavarian struggle of wills.”

The ding-dong affair ended at 3am when Swinarski flopped a full house, while Böcher also hit the flop. When they ended up all-in after the turn, Böcher was drawing dead and Swinarski was the champion -$47,064 richer, with his compatriot taking a very decent $42,000 in the pre-heads- up deal they made.

The best Irish showing was a highly creditable 3rd spot for Alan White who bagged $21,250 and the sponsors were extremely happy at the turn-out and local showings. Since the Full Tilt-sponsored IPO Tour launched in April of this year, over 2,418 players have attended the events in Bray, Cork, London, Newcastle, Killarney, Dublin, generating $527,124 in prizes so far.

Next up, the Full Tilt IPO will make its seventh stop - in Limerick from November 13–15 - with many more stops to come in 2016 – with details being revealed in the coming months.