Yorky Pud

The inaugural World Poker Tour Ireland Main Event kicked off yesterday afternoon and the organisers were slightly worried about the potential turnout with the 2012 PCA festival getting under way on the exact same day but any fears they had were soon calmed as literally hundreds of players passed through the doors of the Citywest Hotel in Dublin to participate in the first WPT of the year.

By the time registration had come to close a total of 338 poker players had exchanged €2,500 for 30,000 tournament chips making this event one of the best attended European-based WPT Main Events in recent times. Amongst these 338 entrants were some of Britain and Europe's finest players who decided to give the PCA a swerve including Sam Trickett, James Akenhead, John Eames, World Series of Poker bracelet winner Matt Perrins and WSOPE bracelet winner Scott Shelly. However none of those young men managed to navigate through the minefield of Day 1 and all were seen heading to the rail at some point during the nine 60-minute levels that were played.

One man who certainly made it through the first day's play unscathed was the Dublin-based pro David Callaghan who ended the day with an impressive stack containing 186,900. Callaghan only entered this event on a whim and it will possibly be his only No Limit Hold'em event of the year because he is a Pot Limit Omaha specialist. Anyone looking at his Hendon Mob profile will see Callaghan has 18 cashes in major tournaments of which 13 were earned playing PLO. At the start of this event the Irishman had $443,268 in live tournament cashes and that will easily exceed half a million dollars should he go all the way and take down WPT Ireland.

Callaghan is experienced enough to realise that this tournament is far from over as there are still 195 players who have chips in front of them and some of those who are still in contention are extremely talented players indeed. Looking down the official end of day chip counts one finds the likes of Andy Black, 2007 WSOP Main Event final table member Jon Kalmar, the hyper-aggressive former WPT Amneville champion Sam El Sayed, Jack Ellwood, Vladimir Geshkenbein, Jake Cody, Toby Lewis, Mclean Karr, Kara Scott, Marvin Rettenmaier, James Dempsey and James Sudworth!

The 195 surviving players will return to their seats knowing the have to make it to the final 36 players if they are wanting to receive any money for their efforts on the Emerald Isle. Place 28-36 will take home €5,550 and the prize money gradually increases until the unofficial nine-handed final table is reach, at which point the jumps in payouts become more severe. Ninth place is worth €12,600 but by the time the official six-handed final table is set the prize money will be €31,120. The eventual winner will walk away with €202,680 and a $25,000 seat to the WPT World Championship in their back pocket. Will it be Callaghan who emerges the WPT Ireland champion or will he be overtaken by one of the more household names still in the chasing pack? Only time will tell and we will bring you updates of the action until the tournament is completed late on Sunday.