Irish poker player Joseph Macari has managed to navigate his way to his first major live poker tournament winning, emerging victorious from the Main Event of the Grand Prix Dublin. As Casino Guardian has earlier reported, the Grand Prix Dublin event was hosted at the Clayton Hotel as part of the 2017 Grand Prix Poker Tour.
The tournament provoked the interest of a large number of British and Irish poker players, especially considering the fact that Dublin was only the second stop of this year’s edition of the Grand Prix Poker Tour.
A total of 549 players entered the €340 buy-in Main Event, each of them hoping to become a Grand Prix champion in the Dublin event. They accounted for a guaranteed prize pool estimated to €150,000. However, only 123 players managed to return to their seats on the final day of the competition. Of course, all of them were motivated to stay in the game and not become the one who would burst the money bubble.
Eventually, it was Stephen Ward who burst the money bubble, exiting in 63rd position and locking up €600 for the active players.
At the time when the event’s final table was formed, each of the eight players who played their way to it, were guaranteed a €3,850 portion of the overall prize pool. In addition, Kevin O’Malley, Joseph Macari, Dave Masters and David Crilly received a money package of €2,000 as participants in the partypoker Final Table Challenge.
Douglas Murphy started the Final Table Draw of the 2017 Grand Prix Dublin as a chip leader, holding 2,725,000 in chips, followed by John Hanaphy who at this time had 2,500,000 in chips. Thomas Fitzgerald was third with 2,010,000 in chips. The final table game started right after midnight, and the first player, Kevin O’Malley, got eliminated less than half an hour later.
The players left the final table one by one, with the six-handed play lasting about 40 minutes. As soon as there were only five players left around the table, they stopped the game for a break and decided to negotiate an eventual deal for the remaining prize pool. The chip leader at the time, Thomas Fitzgerald, turned down the proposed conditions and the game was resumed. Unfortunately for him, he left a bit later, at the fourth position. Soon after that, Joseph Macari and Dave Masters faced each other for a heads-up battle, but the players wisely agreed to a deal that divided the prize to €26,310 for Macari and €24,095 for Masters. The event’s trophy and a total of €5,595 were left for the eventual winner.
After a fantastic, fierce heads-up battle, Joseph Macari emerged as the 2017 Grand Prix Dublin Main Event winner.
With Joseph Macari finishing first, taking home a prize of €31,905, Dave Masters remained on the runner-up position, scooping a consolation prize estimated to €24,095. Another Irish player – John Hanaphy – occupied the third place in the ranking, with a prize of €14,000 received.
Thomas Fitzgerald remained fourth, followed by Douglas Murphy. The only UK player among the final eight – David Crilly – got sixth, being granted with a guaranteed prize pool portion estimated to €6,500. Peter O’Dowd and Kevin O’Malley occupied the seventh and eighth positions in the ranking, respectively.
- Author
Harry Evans
