Irish Poker Festival 2010 Won By Lars Torngren

Lars Torngren has won the Irish Poker Festival 2010, after defeating a field of 632 players over four days to claim the title and the €75,000 ($103,350) first place prize.
Commenting after his memorable victory at the €500 buy-in tournament in Killarney, Lars Torngren said:
“I was really impressed with the structure of this event. I have been playing poker for about 8 years and this is my first big tournament win so I am absolutely delighted. I am already looking forward to next year’s Ladbrokes poker festival.”
The large field attracted to ‘The Irish Poker Open’ helped create a prize pool of €316,000 and by the field had eventually been whittled down to just 10 players, lone Swede at the table Lars Tornson was the second chip leader on 1.7 million chips.
UK was represented at the final table by chip leader Jon Kalmer (1,81m), and Richard Connoly, (360k) while the remaining 7 players at the table were all from Ireland and included Valerie McGrath (800k),Paul Lucey (402k), Allen Mc Clean (720k), Mark Coyne (1m), Barry McGleenon (1.5m),  Brian Murphy (680k) and Paul Vermigo (564k).
The final table was an action packed affair demonstrated not least by an exciting final hand which saw Lars Torngren holding the chip lead and all-in holding pocket 6’s with both Paul Lucey (A-7) and Barry McGleenon (J-5) in the three-way pot and fighting for their tournament lives.
Lars Torngren prevailed to lift the title, while Paul Lucey collected €50,000 for his 2nd place finish and Barry McGleenon €30,000 in 3rd.
 
The Irish Poker Festival continues to be an extremely popular fixture in the European poker calendar which sees its numbers swell each year.
Also at this year’s event was a whole host of celebrities, including English actor Nick Moran from ‘Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels’ fame.
The star of the upcoming Harry Potter film put in a good performance until he hit trip 10’s on the flop holding K-10 only to discover his opponent held A-K.
Nick Moran had been receiving poker lessons from Ladbrokes professional Jon ‘Skalie’ Kalmar, which held him in good stead during the competition. Moran also got to enjoy watching his friend finish an impressive 4th.
“I’m absolutely delighted for Skalie, he really deserved the €20k and by following all the tips he’s been giving me this past year I managed to put in a pretty decent performance myself!” commented Moran.