DARYL McAleenan has reflected on his ‘lifetime’ achievement of finishing in fourth place at the Irish Open poker tournament.
Daryl won Eur250,500, his biggest ever tournament winnings, eclipsing his previous largest pot by Eur190,000, and reached the prestigious final table for the first time in his life.
He told the Mourne Observer: “The Irish Open is the one tournament that everybody who plays poker in Ireland wants to win.
“If you don’t play poker then you won’t understand how tough that game is.
“It is described as one of the biggest tournaments in the world.”
Only a quarter of the 5,000-plus entries are from Ireland.
Another quarter are from the UK, and the rest are international players.
Daryl said: “You are playing with some of the best players in the world.
“All the professionals from England are playing in it.
“It is a lifetime achievement to get to the final table.”
The player who eventually won was Romanian Narcis Nedelcu, who plays lots of big international games and had Eur1.5million in winnings before the tournament started.
The Irish Open poker event takes place over two and a half weeks.
Anyone can enter and the entry fee is Eur1,150.
It started on Thursday March 26.
There are a number of day one events, where the masses of entries have to get whittled down.
Day two was on Saturday April 4, day three was on Sunday and then the final day was Monday April 6.
Daryl, who is originally from Drumaness but has lived in Castlewellan for 17 years, had not set any goals going into the event.
“It is nice to have targets, but it is hard to have a target going into any one tournament.
“The biggest target you can set going into any tournament is to win the tournament.”
After his first day’s play Daryl had amassed 512,00 chips and was third out of his group.
That qualified him for the second round.
He was ranked 42nd in chips after the second round, with 2,300,000.
After the third day (Saturday), he had climbed to fifth place, with 20,900,000 chips.
After play on Saturday, 10 players remained. Once it reaches nine players, then the tournament goes to the final table.
That’s the holy grail for competitors.
Daryl said: “I don’t know the stats of how many people make it to the final table of the Irish Open twice, but I am pretty sure it is next to none.
“So it is a lifetime achievement to make to the final table.”
It is as much a test of endurance as it is of skill.
“I was very happy with how I played. You could see on the stream how tired I was.
“On day three I was shattered. I was moved to the TV table for the last hour and a half and I had the sunglasses on. When I took them off, you could see my eyes were hanging out of my head.”
If you are one of the nine players to reach the final table you are guaranteed Eur40,000.
During the final five, Daryl had to make a big play to stay in the tournament.
He went head-to-head with an Italian player, Danilo Donnini, who had a really strong hand.
“Both players went all in and the flop (the communal cards) fell favourably for Daryl and he won the pot and stayed in the game.
“I was amazingly happy at that stage because I had played as well as I could. The hand I was in with was a standard shove (going all in). I had done nothing wrong. If I go out, I am walking away with Eur136,000. I couldn’t have done any better. I flopped a flush, and the 25 Irish who were there for me all cheered.
“For me that was the standout moment.
“The rail (where the fans were watching from) erupted and it was the best feeling ever, knowing there were so many people behind you and wanted you to win.”
