Team Championship of Poker could reach 50 to 60 Teams this weekend.

The Team Championship of Poker takes place this weekend at the CityWest Hotel, Dublin from Thursday August  20th to Sunday 23rd.

Jp McCann who will be the Tournament Director for the weekend spoke to Irish Poker Radio last week about the build up to the event

“We’ve had a good uptake on the event in the last week or two. At the moment we have close to 40 teams registered or showing interest in the event, so we’re hoping to get 60 Teams”.

“It’s €250 a man with teams of six, so it’s €1,500 per team and not going to break anyone’s bankroll”.

Roy Brindley to play ICC. Betting available on Boyle Poker.

Roy Brindley is the last name added to the list of stars playing in the inaugural Irish Champions Cup at The Eglinton Casino’s Galway Race Week Poker Festival.

Boylesports have quoted betting prices for the event with Andy Black, Jude Ainsworth and Marty Smyth joint favourites at 6/1 and Fintan Gavin and Martin Silke currently the outsiders at 17/2

The festival has been a roaring success so far with a packed house for last night’s €115 freeze-out which was won by Aisling Ainsworth.

There has also been some exciting cash game action, particularly in the 5/5 Omaha game which is expected to have a six figure sum on the table before the end of the week.

Irish Poker Radio to record live from Waterford Masters.

Show number three of Ireland’s new poker radio show is now available on iTunes and features a host of special guests.

Presenters Iain Cheyne and Nicky O’Donnell spoke with the always entertaining Dave Curtis from the Eglinton casino ahead of Galway’s race week poker festival, as well as Wayne Halloran, one of the organisers behind the brucepoker.com Waterford Masters which takes place at the Grand Hotel Tramore from July 23rd to 26th.

Irish Poker Radio will record the show live at the this event and hopefully get to chat with some of the whose who of Irish poker who will be playing Ireland first European Ranking events after the WSOP.

WSOP Day 7 Preview

The World Series of Poker Main event is now down to just 8 tables, and one very familiar name sits ominously among the chip-leaders.

Phil Ivey has always been regarded as one of, if not the best poker player in the world.

He has won seven world series bracelets including two this year, but surprisingly has never won a bracelet in a holdem event. What better time to do it than in this years Main Event?

Day 6 was the end of the road for the two remaining former champions, Peter Eastgate and Joe Hachem.

Eastgate was elimiated in an unfortunate hand where he re-raised all-in from the big blind with Ace-Jack and found two callers.

On the turn the board read 6-A-4-J giving the Dane top two pair but the board four flushed on the river and David Kopp’s pocket eights with the eight of hearts brought an end to Eastgate’s reign as defending World Champion.

WSOP Main Event: Day 6 Preview

In 2005 Greg Raymer had what was widely regarded as the best back to back performance of all time in a World Series of Poker Main Event.

Having won the event in 2004 Raymer returned the following year to make the final 3 tables in a field of 5619 runners and was battling for the chip-lead only to have his stack crippled in a painfully unfortunate hand with Aaron Kanter.

2008 champion, Peter Eastgate took home over nine million dollars (four million more than raymer in 2006) and this year the Dane is still on course to complete what could go down as one of the greatest achievements of all time in tournament poker.

Of course it will be far from easy but with just 185 of the 6,494 entrants left it is still anyone’s tournament to win.

Some huge names in Poker including Phil Ivey, ELKY, Antonio Estefandari, David Benyamin and former champion Joe Hachem are also still in the hunt.

Irish Poker Radio: #3 in Irish Sports Podcasts.

The second installment of Ireland’s new poker radio show was recorded at their studios in Longford this week with hosts Iain Cheyne and Nicky O’Donnell speaking with Carlo Cretareo from the Four of a Kind Poker tour and Nicky Power live from Vegas.

Nicky was taking a break from his efforts in the WSOP Main Event to play a round of Golf on the Wyn course with Marty Smyth when we called and seemed a little reluctant to discuss tactics.

Carlo spoke to the show about how he began running poker events and his plans for a North West Poker tour.

Last weekend Irish Poker Radio reached number three in terms of listeners for Irish Sports Podcasts, ahead of RTE, The Guardian and The Times.

Show #2 also included discussion on the Irish at this years WSOP Main Event, a preview of the International Poker Open (Europe’s largest tournament held in Ireland) Bruce Poker’s new pub league.

WSOP Day 5 preview.

The bubble has finally popped and we are now getting down to the business end of the World Series of Poker Main Event.

There are three Irishmen left (read more to see their respective chip counts and table draws for today)

Andy Black will have a tough day at the office having drawn Rolf Slotboom, “ELKY” and Jeff Schullman all consectuively to his immediate right.

Fergal Nealon from Sligo has maintained a good stack throughout the tournament and both he and Nicky Power will now undoubtedly be looking to change gears in an attempt to finish much deeper in the tournament.

Of the other five Irish who began day four, three made the money.

WSOP Day 3: Eight Irishmen close to the money.

789 players remain in the World series of poker main event and of the fifteen Irish players who began their third day, eight survived.

Overall it wasn’t the best of days for the Irish as some of our bigger stacks and big names were eliminated.

Marty Smyth who had been misreported as OUT due to being named James in the chip-counts failed to make day 4. As did Rory Brennan, Shaun Craig, Stephen “AllinStevie” Devlin, John Magill, Michael O’Sullivan, Anthony Fagan and Jessey O’Sea.

Also, of the survivors, none are in the top 100.

However on the positive side 648 players get paid so we are nearing the bubble and all of the following players are perfectly capable of making a big push on Day 4. 

WSOP Update: G’wan the Irish!

While we’re still waiting on official chip counts from day 2B, we shall give you the run down on all the Irish horses (that we know of) still in the hunt at the World Series of Poker Main event.

Top of the list is Fergal Nealon from Sligo who is happily among the chip leaders on 242,000.

Behind him is Andy Black running well on 215,700.

Other Irish Chip Counts:

Michael O’Sulivan: 140,000, Rory Brenna: 132,000, Michael “BigMickG” Graydon: 132,000, John Magill: 106,000, Nicky Power: 72,000, Albert Kenny: 66,000

Unfortunately Marty Smyth, Padraig Parkinson, Donacha O’Dea and Eoin O’Dea have been eliminated.