€1,150 Main Event
Day 4 Completed
2024 Irish Open
€1,150 Main Event
Day: 4
Event Info
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
Players Info - Day 4
2024 Irish Open
Buy-in
€1,150
Prize Pool
€3,152,175
Entries
3,233
Level
42
Blinds
1,000,000 / 2,000,000
Ante
2,000,000
Entries
14
Players Left
1
Level 42
: Blinds 1,000,000/2,000,000, 2,000,000 ante
A massive field of 3,233 entries assembled at the Royal Dublin Society for the 2024 Irish Open €1,150 Main Event, partly thanks to sponsors PokerStars and Paddy Power Poker, setting a new record for the Irish Open and absolutely smashing the guaranteed prize pool of €1,000,000 by creating a prize pool of €3,152,175.
However, as with any other tournament, there could only be one person left standing at the end. Over four long days of poker action, it was Day 3 chipleader Tero Laurila who won the iconic Irish Open trophy and took home €292,685 after a three-way deal.
Laurila defeated Ireland’s Hiep Ninh after a relatively short heads up battle, as the blinds had been reduced from 60 to 20 minutes after the deal. Ninh, who plays almost exclusively in Dublin, took home the larger sum of €335,636 for his efforts due to having a massive chip lead when the deal was made. The final person involved in the deal was the 21-year-old Mark Johnston, who is just dipping his toes in the waters of professional poker and walked away with €232,685 for third place.
Laurila is a full-time traveling poker player from Finland who has been playing for nearly 20 years. He mostly plays Omaha cash games, however, he has plenty of tournament experience as well, making the final table of the WCOOP Main Event in 2006 and more recently winning a main event in Barcelona for his biggest-ever live score until today.
"I almost passed out," Laurila said in an interview with Irish Open host Laura Cornelius when asked about his feelings after the win, "with all the stress coming out of my body and mind." Laurila had a big Finnish rail, with which he is sure to have a few beverages to celebrate his historic victory as the first-ever Finnish winner of the Irish Open. "I've got four and a half hours of sleep two to three nights in a row, but of course [I'm going to celebrate] something with the guys."
Also on the final table were WSOPC ring winner Georgios Tsouloftas (4th - €142,760), long-time Irish Open regular Oliver Boyce (5th - €109,820), and Spanish grinder David Tous (9th - €38,420).
€1,150 Irish Open Main Event Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tero Laurila | Finland | €292,685* |
| 2 | Hiep Ninh | Ireland | €335,636* |
| 3 | Mark Johnston | United Kingdom | €232,685* |
| 4 | Georgios Tsouloftas | Cyprus | €142,760 |
| 5 | Oliver Boyce | Ireland | €109,820 |
| 6 | Stephen Groom | United Kingdom | €84,480 |
| 7 | Vidmantas Beliauskas | Lithuania | €64,960 |
| 8 | Adrian Thorne | Ireland | €49,960 |
| 9 | David Tous | Spain | €38,420 |
* denotes three-way deal
Day 4 action
However, before the final table was reached, the day started with 14 hopefuls returning for the final day, of which five needed to be disposed of before the final table was reached. First to go was the very short-stacked Aidan Quinlan, who lost a flip to bust. Irish poker legend Padraig Parkinson was next in line, as he jammed his top pair into the slow-played aces of Georgios Tsouloftas. Last American standing Brian Moore also fell to aces in 12th place, when he went all-in preflop with ace-five suited and ran into them.
Robert Shanley started the day near the bottom of the leaderboard, but he managed to make a few pay jumps until he finally fell with four big blinds remaining. Less than two hours after the start of Day 4, online qualifier Konstantinos Vatseris got his final two big blinds in from the big blind and lost the subsequent all-in to become the unfortunate final table bubble.
Tous started the final table with a big stack, coming in as second in chips. However, in one of the first hand of the final tables, he triple-barrel bluffed into the nut flush of Johnston and lost the majority of his stack to give the latter the chip lead. Not much later, he was the first to depart the final table after losing a preflop confrontation against Ninh.
Adrian Thorne then followed in the footsteps of Moore by shoving all in preflop with ace-five suited against a monster. He could not win against Tsouloftas’ ace-king and exited in eighth place. Johnston then scored his second knock-out of the final table by eliminating Vidmantas Beliauskas in a flip, after which Stephen Groom jammed his jacks into Laurila’s queens to bust in sixth.
Boyce, who claimed to have been playing the Irish Open for 20 years, saw his deepest Main Event run ever come to an end in fifth place when he raised all in with a straight draw and did not hit against Ninh’s top pair. Four-handed play saw Tsouloftas lose almost every pot he played until Ninh finally put the final nail in his coffin when his top pair held against the Cypriot’s straight draw.
Deal Discussions and Three-Handed Play
The tournament was immediately paused after Tsouloftas’ elimination as the three remaining players started an intense deal negotiation. After half an hour, they agreed to each take home a set sum of money, while leaving €25,000 for second and €60,000 for the eventual champion. Ninh, who had a massive chip lead at that point, was guaranteed to take home the biggest prize, while Laurila and Johnston were even in chips and chopped up the rest of the prize pool.
After play resumed, Ninh kept building his lead until he jammed his sixes into Laurila’s tens. Laurila held and doubled up to take over the chip lead from Ninh. Johnston was left as the only short stack as a result, and when he jammed 15 big blinds with pocket nines he lost a flip against Ninh and finished in third. Thankfully for him, he took home a heavy bag of cash thanks to the deal, a warm welcome for a relatively new professional like himself.
Ninh started the heads up with a slight chip advantage, but that soon changed when Laurila made an insane hero call with queen-high to take a two-to-one lead. Not much later, he finished the job in style when Ninh jammed in his final 10 big blinds with eight-seven and Laurila made quads with his queen-jack.
With the victory secured, Laurila celebrated enthusiastically with his Finnish rail as he was awarded the trophy and the title of Irish Open Main Event Champion. With that, the Main Event came to a close, and so will the PokerNews live report. However, be sure to check out the live reporting hub for coverage of other events all over the globe.
Level 42
: Blinds 1,000,000/2,000,000, 2,000,000 ante
Hiep Ninh open-jammed his button for 20,000,000 chips and Tero Laurila made the call in the big blind to put his opponent at risk.
Hiep Ninh: 8?7? 
Tero Laurila: Q?J?
Laurila cemented his lead on the Q?2?9? flop, and secured the tournament win on the Q? turn. He finished in style, as the Q? river saw him make quads to end the tournament.
Ninh was eliminated as runner-up but took home the largest cash prize, €335,636, thanks to the three-way deal that was made.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
97,000,000
20,000,000
|
20,000,000 |
|
||
|
Busted | |
Level 42
: Blinds 1,000,000/2,000,000, 2,000,000 ante
Tero Laurila limped his button with A?9? and Hiep Ninh checked in the big blind with J?6?. Ninh then check-called a 3,000,000 bet from Laurila on the 7?2?A? flop, as well as a 4,500,000 bet on the J? turn.
The Q? river arrived and Ninh checked once more and Laurila fired a big bet of 10,000,000 chips. Ninh chucked in a call and saw the bad news at showdown.
Laurila's pair of aces won the pot and left Ninh with ten big blinds.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
77,000,000
14,000,000
|
14,000,000 |
|
|
||
|
|
20,000,000
-14,000,000
|
-14,000,000 |
Level: 42
Blinds: 1,000,000/2,000,000
Ante: 2,000,000
Level 41
: Blinds 800,000/1,600,000, 1,600,000 ante
Tero Laurila limped in with Q?2? on the button, after which Hiep Ninh raised to 3,600,000 with 9?6? in the big blind. Laurila made the call and called Ninh's 1,700,000 continuation-bet on the K?K?4? flop.
Ninh sized up to 4,700,000 on the 8? turn, but Laurila still hung around and made the call with his queen-high. The 5? river saw Ninh complete his triple barrel bluff with a bet of 7,900,000.
Laurila did not think long before he hero called with his queen-high. Ninh tabled his bluff and Laurila scooped up the biggest pot of the heads up, ending up with a big chip lead.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
63,000,000
19,000,000
|
19,000,000 |
|
|
||
|
|
34,000,000
-19,000,000
|
-19,000,000 |
Level 41
: Blinds 800,000/1,600,000, 1,600,000 ante
Hiep Ninh raised his button to 3,500,000 with A?K? and Tero Laurila defended the big blind with 8?5?. Laurila then led out for 1,600,000 on the 3?10?4? flop, which Ninh raised to 5,000,000.
Laurila then jammed all in for 31,000,000, causing Ninh to go into the tank. Eventually, Ninh mucked his big slick
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
53,000,000
-15,000,000
|
-15,000,000 |
|
|
44,000,000
15,000,000
|
15,000,000 |
|
|
||
Level: 41
Blinds: 800,000/1,600,000
Ante: 1,600,000
Level 40
: Blinds 600,000/1,200,000, 1,200,000 ante
Hiep Ninh limped in from the button with K?8? and Tero Laurila checked his Q?J? in the big blind. The J?10?9? flop then went check-check before Laurila made a 1,500,000-chip bet on the 10? turn.
Ninh called for the Q? river to hit the table. Laurila bet 2,500,000 chips, which Ninh raised to 7,200,000 after thinking for a while. Laurila tossed in a call after taking a little time himself, and Ninh showed his straight to widen the gap between the two players.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
68,000,000
12,000,000
|
12,000,000 |
|
|
29,000,000
-12,000,000
|
-12,000,000 |
|
|
||
Level 40
: Blinds 600,000/1,200,000, 1,200,000 ante
Hiep Ninh raised to 2,700,000 on the button with 9?9? and Tero Laurila defended his big blind with Q?5?. Laurila then led out for 1,500,000 on the 4?10?7? flop and Ninh made the call.
Laurila slowed down and checked on the subsequent A? turn, leading Ninh to bet 2,500,000, which Laurila called. Both players then checked the 2? river and Ninh's nines won against the missed flush draw of Laurila.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
56,000,000
6,000,000
|
6,000,000 |
|
|
41,000,000
-6,000,000
|
-6,000,000 |
|
|
||