Niall McAree Crowned Grand Prix Cork Champion
The €100,000 guaranteed partypoker Grand Prix Cork Main Event attracted 426 players to the Macau Sporting Club in Cork, Ireland over the weekend and they were all outlasted by Niall McAree who turned his €340 investment into €25,000.
Grand Prix Cork Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Niall McAree | €25,000 |
| 2 | Dwyer Monaghan | €15,800 |
| 3 | Thomas FItzgerald | €11,790 |
| 4 | Leo Nash | €9,600 |
| 5 | Kalle Kampus | €7,565 |
| 6 | David Connolly | €5,775 |
| 7 | Stephen O’Hara | €4,210 |
| 8 | Nole Mannion | €3,120 |
| 9 | Liam Chevalier | €2,555 |
Parts of the United Kingdom and Ireland were battered by Storm Doris and dozens of flights to Ireland were cancelled as a result. Despite the horrendous weather, the 426 entrants created a guarantee-busting €127,800 prize pool that was distributed among the top 47 finishers. A final table appearance was worth €2,555 and an outright win weighed in at €25,000.
Liam Chevalier bust on the first hand of the nine-handed final table. Chevalier pushed 17 big blinds into the middle with pocket jacks after Leo Nash had opened with a raise. Unfortunately for Chevalier, Nash had initially raised with a pair of kings and he made the call. Nash’s kings held and Chevalier’s tournament ended.
Nole Mannion and Stephen O’Hara then bust while holding a pair of three. Mannion’s threes lost to the pocket sevens of David Connolly before O’Hara’s lowly pair lost a coin flip against the ace-queen of McAree.
Connolly then fell in sixth place when his king-queen fell foul to the ace-three of Thomas Fitzgerald. Connolly caught a queen on the flop, Fitzgerald a three and the turn brought another three into play to gift Fitzgerald trips. The river was a brick and Connolly was gone.
Fifth place went to Kalle Kampus who lost two hands in quick succession while holding king-jack both times. First, Kampus’ king-jack lost to Fitzgerald's ace-seven before the rest of Kampus’ stack went into the middle. Then, Kampus lost to McAree’s king-five when McAree spiked a five on the river.
Next to be eliminated was Nash before Fitzgerald’s run ended in third place to secure the first five-figure score of the tournament.
Going into heads-up, McAree held a 7,150,000 to 3,500,000 chip lead over Dwyer Monaghan but Monaghan fought back and even claimed the chip lead for himself at one point. The last laugh, however, was McAree’s.
The final hand saw Monaghan move all in for 2,300,000 with queen-nine and McAree call with ace-ten of clubs. McAree improved to a pair of tens on the flop and when neither player improved on the turn or river, the Grand Prix Cork Main Event had its champion.
