Northern Poker Festival – Day 1 Wrap
The IPT rolled into Dundalk for the third year to host the Northern Poker Festival. With the weather being warmer than many can remember, a few days in the poker room was exactly what was needed. As is always the case on first day of a festival the room was filled with smiles, laughter and people catching up with their poker family.
Kicking off proceedings was the €10k Festival Opener 1A which saw 65 entries making up the field. With a welcome return to live poker from the 2025 IPT leaderboard champion Paul Carr the stage was set. From this flight there were 9 players who made it through.
Bringing forward the biggest bag from this flight was Kevin Carragher who had 370,000 and closely behind him Paul filled up the Cookie Jar with 349,000, to bring forward to the final stage.
Next up was the €10k Festival Opener 1B Hyper which saw a further 24 entries adding to the prize pool that surpassed the guarantee and topped out at €14,525. This flight saw a further 4 players making it through to the final stage with the Midland’s Card Club very own Ray Bryant securing the biggest bag with 215,000.
Before the first trophy of the festival was to be decided, the Northern Main Event Day 1A gave players their first chance to secure their spot for Sunday’s final. In total 68 players were in the mix. With the buzz of live poker filling the air the festival was well underway. In the end there were 11 players who made it through. With the highest stacks being snapped up by Paul Hanna (242,000), Oleksandr Skomorokha, (353,000) and with the most chips bagged so far and what is going to be hard top was Paul Conway (897,000).
The Northern PF €10k Opener Final closed out the days proceedings with 13 players hoping to be the first to taste victory at the festival. As the night progressed, we were left with 10 players and it was Dickie Whiteside who bubbled on the tournament leaving us with a final table guaranteed a payday. Paul Carr had a great run, but after a couple of bad beats he exited the tournament in fifth with €1,150.
When it got down to 4 players, there was somewhat of a stalemate with control shifting from player to player. Eventually the clock was stopped, a deal was discussed and agreed upon. The payouts were adjusted so fourth, third and second would receive €2,500 with first place taking the trophy and €3,100. In fourth position was Adrian Creagh, in third was Shane Crosby, in second was Kevin Carragher. Taking home the trophy and the bigger payout was Robbie Bryant. This year is shaping up to be great for Robbie after winning the Main Event at The Monster in Dublin along with several other final table appearances this year.
With a Saturday jam packed with tournaments to tantalise and titillate, this one is not to be missed. If you can’t make it to Dundalk which is roughly one hour from both Belfast and Dublin then make sure to stay tuned to Live Poker Updates for all the action…