Thomas Gallagher Leads Day 1a of the partypoker Grand Prix Killarney Main Event
Day 1a of the €300,000 guaranteed partypoker Grand Prix Killarney €340 Main Event at at Ireland’s National Event Centre (INEC) and Gleneagle Hotel was a big success with 100 entrants joining the field to create a total field size of 295 when taking into account the 195 entrants that have entered online opening days.
A total of 24 players bagged chips from the Day 1e field making it a total of 69 players thus far that have advanced to Day 2 with three more opening days to be played on Friday and Saturday.
Local Irish poker player Thomas Gallagher led the way in today's action after bagging 243,000 chips. Gallagher was on top or near the top of the board the entire second half of the day after he eliminated fellow Irishman Mortimer O'Shea in a hand where both players flopped a set. O'Shea who had trip queens, re-entered the tournament after his hand was no match for Gallagher's trip kings.
Other players finishing Day 1a with big stacks included two other players from Ireland in Gerry Farrell (second - 215,200) and John Power (third - 176,000).
Partypoker Ambassador Padraig Parkinson was among the players that were unable to advance in today's field. He was eliminated on both his initial entry and a re-entry before the first break. The tournament hasn't seen the last of the Irish poker legend as he plans to give the tournament another go on at least one of the other three remaining opening days.
Also unable to advance on Day 1a were the top three finishers in last year's event in Richie Lawlor, Alan Kelleher and Raymond Masters. While Raymond Masters was unable to advance, his son Graham Masters, whom was on the same table with him for a few blind levels, bagged a stack of 102,200 which was around the average of the players remaining.
Day 1b of the Main Event will kick off at 2 p.m. local time tomorrow and a turbo Day 1c will begin later in the day at 7:30 p.m. local time. As was the case today, the PokerNews live reporting team will be back on the floor to provide complete coverage for both these opening days and the turbo Day 1d kicking off at 10 a.m. local time a few hours before Day 2 begins.