Think about navigating to the ultimate desk of the Irish Open Most important Occasion, discovering your self short-stacked, flopping the nuts, and having an opponent set you all-in. You’d snap-call, proper? Proper? Certainly you wouldn’t be inclined to enter the tank and slowroll your opponent, particularly when your opponent is Donnacha O’Dea, an Irish poker legend and arguably probably the most revered and beloved man within the event room.
You may in all probability inform that this isn’t a hypothetical situation however one that truly occurred. Ten years in the past, the 2015 Irish Open Most important Occasion had reached its ultimate desk when some of the (in)well-known palms within the event’s historical past went down.
David Lappin dug the video footage from the archives and posted it on his X account, which you’ll be able to see under.
Donnacha O’Dea, affectionately often known as “The Don,” rightly holds legendary standing inside the Irish poker group and additional afield. O’Dea opened the betting with a min-raise to 100,000 with ace-six of golf equipment. Andreas Gann, a German participant with no earlier cashes on his Hendon Mob profile on the time, referred to as with king-queen of diamonds within the small blind, leaving himself round 3.5 huge blinds behind. The large blind folded, and the seller fanned a six-ace-eight all-diamond flop, gifting Gann the nuts and O’Dea two pair.
Gann checked, and O’Dea moved a stack of chips over the betting line, sufficient to place Gann all in if he referred to as, which you’d anticipate him to do in a heartbeat. However Gann had different plans. These plans primarily revolved round going into the tank for greater than a minute.
Sluggish-rolling is frowned upon at the most effective of occasions, by no means thoughts on the ultimate desk of a serious event and in opposition to a poker icon enjoying in his personal yard. As soon as Gann referred to as and flipped over the stone chilly nuts, you possibly can think about the reactions of his tablemates; they seemed on in disbelief. Kevin Killeen, who went on to complete second, gave Gann a chunk of his thoughts, whereas the commentary workforce of Emmet Kennedy, David Lappin, and Fergal Nealon could not imagine their eyes.
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“Horrific,” “horrendous,” and “disgraceful” had been simply three of the phrases the commentators used whereas describing what was unfolding on the desk.
O’Dea remained silent and immobile all through the drama, just like the gentleman he’s.
Everybody besides Gann hoped the Poker Gods would serve some justice by bettering O’Dea to a full home, however solely having 4 outs made that unlikely at finest. After burning a card, the seller put in seven on the flip, which was no assist to O’Dea. A burn card later, and a six landed on the river, bettering O’Dea to a full home and, a lot to the delight of the baying crowd, eliminating Gann in eighth place. Justice was served, or was it?
It Wasn’t Gann’s Intention to Disrespect Anybody
In accordance with former PokerNews Editor Wealthy Ryan, after the boos had quietened and the furore had dissipated, Nealon of the commentary workforce spoke with Gann and requested why he thought it was a good suggestion to run a slowroll on O’Dea.
To Nealon’s shock, Gann did not know he’d achieved something fallacious and was perplexed by the group’s response. As beforehand talked about, Gann had no prior dwell outcomes, so it’s truthful to imagine he lacked expertise and genuinely thought he was not doing something untoward.
Gann revealed to Nealon that he knew his household and buddies had been watching at residence and he needed to extend the drama and rigidity for them, however it wasn’t his intention to disrespect others. Nealon instructed Gann it could be a good suggestion to apologize to O’Dea, which, to his credit score, he did, returning to the stage the place he’d been booed off earlier to shake O’Dea’s hand.
O’Dea in the end completed sixth for €61,850, with Greece’s Ioannis Triantafyllakis rising victorious for €209,500 after a heads-up cope with the aforementioned Killeen.
2025 Irish Open Most important Occasion Has €2.5 Million Assured
The 2025 version of the Irish Open Most important Occasion is underway, with Day 1a within the books. The €1,150 buy-in, €2.5 million assured spectacular noticed 114 of the 463 Day 1a entrants progress to Day 2 on the first try.
Slovakia’s Martin Ilavsky (529,000 chips) claimed an early lead, though Andrii Nikitin (526,000), Philip Carroll (523,500), and Michael Prendergast (520,000) are scorching on the chief’s heels.
Others safely by way of embrace Stuart Taylor (270,500), Jack Hardcastle (252,000), Matthew Davenport (222,000), Irish legend Andy Black (219,500), Cathal Shine (114,000), and Workforce PokerStars’ Caitlin Comeskey (107,000), Marle Spragg (95,000) and Alejandro Romero (46,000).
Day 1b shuffles up and offers at 12:00 p.m. BST on April 16, and you may comply with the entire updates through the PokerNews Dwell Reporting pages. Here is hoping there’s loads of drama minus slowrolls!
Matthew Pitt
Senior Editor
