Alec Torelli Bags the Chip Lead After Day 1a of Irish Poker Festival €3,000 Main Event

As is often the case in poker tournaments, Day 1a of the 2024 Irish Poker Festival €3,000 Main Event was expected to be the smallest flight of the four scheduled. Although the total entrants for the remaining flights aren’t yet known, it’s fairly certain this was indeed the smallest, as only 21 entrants registered for the first flight.

After ten 60-minute levels today at the Intercontinental Hotel in Dublin, Ireland, 11 players advanced to Saturday's Day 2. Leading the pack is Alec Torelli with 268,000 chips. Torelli, who was among the chip leaders at dinner, steadily grew his stack until the end of the day. He is followed by Simon Wilson, who held the chip lead for a while but lost significant pots in the last levels, and Michael Dwyer, in third place with 113,000 chips.

2024 Irish Poker Festival €3,000 Main Event Day 1a Chip Counts

Place	Player	Country	Chip Count	Big Blinds
1	Alec Torelli	United States	268,000	168
2	Simon Wilson	Ireland	165,200	103
3	Michael Dwyer	Ireland	113,000	71
4	Karl Hedderman	Ireland	86,000	54
5	Seamus Cahill	Ireland	82,900	52
6	John Dwyer	United States	80,000	50
7	Espen Myrmo	Norway	73,200	46
8	Conor Bergin	Ireland	62,100	39
9	Alan Gilmore	Ireland	40,900	26
10	Andzej Bilat	Lithuania	38,500	24
11	Temur Aliev	Georgia	31,900	20

Day 1a's action

Despite a small start with only six players seated at the beginning of the day, it didn’t take long to see the first chips flying. A few minutes after the beginning of the second level, Leo Lombardozzi called Mindaugas Kriauciunas’s stack with a full house. But Kriauciunas had a better full house and doubled up. Down to a few blinds, Lombardozzi became the first player eliminated of the day moments later.

After the first break and another level, Christian Dressler was next to be eliminated. He was the only player to reenter the tournament, but he wasn't successful on his second attempt either.

At the same time, Torelli found himself with only 10,000 chips, one-fifth of the starting stack. However, he managed a comeback, becoming, along with Wilson, one of the first players to reach 100,000. On his way to the top of the chip counts, he found aces and then hit a nut flush to crack Michel Molenaar's aces. The defending champion was eliminated a few hands later, not long before the dinner break.

After dinner, Bobby Willis' elimination marked the start of a more aggressive phase, with several players busting out before the end of Day 1a. Michael Sklenicka was one of them, as well as Mantas Stikelis, who lost a flip with eights against Karl Hedderman's ace-queen. Shortly before, Stikelis had lost a big part of his stack in a three-way all-in situation with kings, where both Temur Aliev and Alan Gilmore hit a straight and doubled up.

Aliev doubled up again several times after that, but he remains last in chips with 31,900. Alan Gilmore (40,900) and Andzej Bilat (38,500) also have stacks under 30 big blinds.

Like Aliev, Espen Myrmo (73,200) doubled up during the last levels. He did so through Wilson, who as in the race for the chip lead as he had previously reached 250,000. However, several pot losses and Seamus Cahill winning a flip against him ultimately decreased Wilson’s stack.