After a grueling 13-hour day, 14 players found a bag after the penultimate day of the €1,150 Irish Open Main Event, sponsored by PokerStars and Paddy Power Poker. Leading the final 14 to the final day is Finnish player Tero Laurila. Laurila will be in prime position to capture the €415,615 top prize which will be awarded to the champion on Day 4.
Laurila spent much of the day among the average stacks, but his preflop aggression got him a big stack in the final level of the day. He then cemented his chip lead in a crazy pot where his opponent exposed his cards preflop, ending up with 13,075,000 chips when all said was done, good for 52 big blinds at the start of Day 4.
Second in chips is Spanish regular David Tous, who is an often-seen face on the European circuit and qualified for the Irish Open online. He had the chiplead throughout much of the later part of the day and bagged 12,125,000 at the end. Meanwhile Ninh Van Hiep was the best performing Irishman, completing the podium with 9,700,000 chips.
Also in the top ten are Day 2 chipleader Konstantinos Vatseris (8,875,000), last American standing Brian Moore (8,000,000), and Irish old-school legend Padraig Parkinson (4,800,000).
End of Day 3 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Day 4 Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tero Laurila | Finland | 13,075,000 | 52 |
| 2 | David Tous | Spain | 12,125,000 | 49 |
| 3 | Ninh Van Hiep | Ireland | 9,700,000 | 39 |
| 4 | Stephen Groom | United Kingdom | 9,050,000 | 36 |
| 5 | Konstantinos Vatseris | Greece | 8,875,000 | 36 |
| 6 | Brian Moore | United States | 8,000,000 | 32 |
| 7 | Mark Johnston | United Kingdom | 6,950,000 | 28 |
| 8 | Oliver Boyce | Ireland | 6,400,000 | 26 |
| 9 | Georgios Tsouloftas | Cyprus | 6,100,000 | 24 |
| 10 | Padraig Parkinson | Ireland | 4,600,000 | 18 |
Day 3 Action
The day started with 109 hopefuls returning to the Royal Dublin Society, who all had secured a portion of the €3,152,175 prize pool already by besting a field of 3,233 entries. There was a steady pace of eliminations throughout the day, and the likes of PokerStars Ambassador Sebastian Huber, Ankit Ahuja, Adam McKola, David Hu, Kully Sidhu, Dara O'Kearney, and David Lappin all busted before the tournament reached the final three tables.
Once there, bracelet winnerTobias Peters, online phenom Conor Beresford, and Irish grinder Simon Wilson said their goodbyes, while Mitchell Hynam was the last player to bust, in 15th place.
The 14 remaining players will start Day 4 at noon local time tomorrow, April 1. The final day of the Irish Open Main Event will begin in Level 33: 100,000/250,000 with a 250,000 big blind ante, and will end only when a winner has been crowned.
Tune back in to PokerNews then to find out who will win the biggest Irish Open Main Event in history.
