The tone for the first Irish Poker Rankings Live final which took place in the Clayton Hotel in Galway was set from the very first hand. After Keith McFadden limped under the gun, Chris Dowling raised to 200, Francis "Wally" McCormack reraised to 700, Dara "Doke" O'Kearney made it 2100 on the button. Everyone folded including Francis who showed queens. Doke confirmed this was a good fold, showing his signature hand, pocket aces.
In cagey early going, Doke emerged as a comfortable chipleader. First out was former Bolyepoker.com sponsored pro Nicky Power, who shipped pocket tens over Graham Masters AJ and lost the race. Next to go was Martin Noonan, who shipped suited connectors from the small blind over a Rob Taylor early position raise.
Third faller was Keith McFadden, doubly unlucky against Cat "Nordy luckbox" O'Neill. First the better half of Irish poker's Posh and Becks hit a gutshot on the turn to dog his AJ with her 65s, and then rivered a king to dog his dominating AJ with her KJ.
Next out was Chris Dowling. Once again Rob "Tilty" Taylor was the recipient of his chips with Chris shipping suited connectors over an early position raise. Next to go was Cat O'Neill when for once her AK failed to suck out against Doke's aces.
Francis McCormack went in fifth in a battle of the blinds against Graham Masters, and David Gill suffered a similar fate to go out in fourth place. Next out was Rob Taylor, leaving Graham Masters and Doke to battle it out headsup. Graham's stack was gradually whittled away until the point where he felt a blind all in was in order. Doke looked at his cards and immediately called with, yep, his signature hand, the aces. Graham turned over T3o. The flop was a rather sick 33A, and there was no miracle one outer to save Graham.
The win continued a recent Doke heater which has seen him win an IPC side event, chop the last ranking event of the year in the Voodoo, final table the Longford Masters, win three UKIPT packages to Manchester and one to the Deauville EPT and numerous online tournaments. He and his new sponsors Brucepoker.com will be hoping the heater continues into his new 5K sponsorship package, the reward for winning the first Irish Poker Rankings final table.
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