Gastao Silva Turns €100 into €16,000 and a €1,500 Package on the Irish Poker Tour
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A few eyebrows were raised when the Irish Poker Tour decided to run a €100,000 guaranteed poker tournament that only cost €100 (€80+€20) to enter, and do so over the St. Patrick's weekend celebrations. The tournament needed 1,250 entrants to hit the ambitious guarantee; had founder Fintan Gavin lost the plot?
It seems that Gavin knows his clientele because 1,771 poker enthusiasts turned out in force for the €100K for €100 event at Dublin's Green Isle Hotel, creating a €136,722 prize pool, over a third more than the advertised guarantee. Bravo.
The top 179 finishers walked away with some prize money to show for their grind. Although the field was predominantly from the Emerald Isle, the lure of a €100,000 prize pool for a €100 investment lured in players from far and wide. Players from England, Portugal, Scotland, Romania, Poland, Lithuania, Brazil, and even Japan finished in the money places. However, Gastao Silva will forever be remembered for taking down this low-stakes high-reward event.
€100 NLHE Dublin €100K Final Table Results
| Rank | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gastao Silva | €16,000* |
| 2 | Brian Slattery | €12,000* |
| 3 | Dean Dowling | €10,000* |
| 4 | Thomas Gallagher | €9,000* |
| 5 | Paddy Kelly | €3,800 |
| 6 | Stephan Campbell | €3,000 |
| 7 | Brendan Liddy | €2,550 |
| 8 | Keith Touhey | €2,140 |
| 9 | Alex Coughlan | €1,750 |
Alex Coughlan's time at the nine-handed final table proved limited because he was the first finalist heading to the cashier's desk. Coughlan collected €1,750 for his efforts, the second-largest haul of his live poker career.
Eighth place and €2,140 went to Keith Touhey, a regular on the Irish Poker Tour. Touhey finished fourth in the €300 NLHE Winter Festival event in November 2023 for €13,500.
Brendan Liddy's first recorded live score since September 2015 is a seventh place finish in the €100K for €100, or €2,550 if you prefer. The €3,000 Stephan Campbell bank after busting in sixth marked a career-high for the Irishman.
Another career-best prize, €3,800, found its way into Paddy Kelly's bank account, leaving only four players in the hunt for the title. With the pay jumps becoming significant, the surviving four grinders struck a deal to lessen the blow of busting.
Thomas Gallagher was the main beneficiary of the deal because he fell by the wayside in fourth, yet still scooped €9,000. Fans of the Irish Open may recall Gallagher finished third in the 2019 Irish Open Main Event for €125,000; it was the year Weijie Zhang took it down for €300,000. Gallagher turns out at most Irish Poker Tour events, and won the €250 NLHE Mayo Cup in mid-February 2024.
Dean Dowling bowed out in third for €10,000, which was his first five-figure prize. Dowling's exit left Gastao Silva heads-up against Brian Slattery. Slattery has not been on the live poker scene for long, bursting onto the scene in February 2022, when he triumphed in a €300 NLHE Irish Poker Championship for €58,000.
Unfortunately for Slattery, he couldn't get the job done and had to make do with a €12,000 second-place prize. Silva, who won the Irish Poker Tour €200 Premier Poker Cup in Clonmel for €12,000 in October 2023, got his hands on €16,000 cash plus a €1,500 package to Irish Poker Tour Paddy Power Poker Portugal Adventure in June 2024 where he'll play for a share of a guaranteed €250,000. The fine folks at Paddy Power kindly donated the €1,500 package.
Full Irish Poker Tour St.Patrick's €100K for €100 Results
Here is the full list of winners from the Irish Poker Tour St. Patrick's €100K for €100 festival. A special mention must go to Tadgh Meegan, who came out on top in the €250 NLHE Mystery Bounty and received €3,000 plus €3,350 worth of mystery bounty payments from a €15,000 prize pool!
| Event | Entrants | Prize Pool | Champion | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| €100 St. Patrick's €100K | 1,771 | €136,722 | Gastao Silva | €16,000 |
| €250 NLHE Mystery Bounty | 100 | €15,000 | Tadgh Meegan | €6,350* |
| €300 NLHE Dublin 300 | 70 | €18,239 | Jonas Olali | €6,000 |
| €150 NLHE Monster Stack | 139 | €17,438 | Dave Murray | €4,670 |
| €300 PLO 7-Max | 36 | €9,380 | Duaine McDonnell | €4,000 |
| €400 PLO | 29 | €10,215 | Kieran Small | €3,900 |
| €150 NLHE | 64 | €8,029 | Brendan McGuiness | €2,929 |
| €150 NLHE | 62 | €7,778 | Gerard McDonnell | €2,478 |
| €100 NLHE | 58 | €5,000 | Michael Harland | €1,680 |
| €200 PLO 4/5 Card | 19 | €3,209 | Shane Keary | €1,609 |
*includes bounty payments
Next up for the Irish Poker Tour is a trip to Galway over the weekend of April 11-12 for the Connacht Poker Festival. From there, the popular tour heads to Dublin, Ballinasloe, and Clonmel in May before heading to Portugal in June for the Paddy Power Poker Portugal Adventure. PokerNews will bring you more about these stops in the coming weeks.
You can win you way into future Irish Poker Tour stops from as little as €1 online at Paddy Power Poker. Download Paddy Power Poker via PokerNews, create your free account, and Paddy Power will give you a €20 bonus plus entry to a €1,500 freeroll once you spend €10 on tournaments, Twisters, or sit & go games.
