Shane Keary wins the Connacht Cup in The Eglinton

Big Man is Heading to Portugal

The Connacht Poker Festival in Galway’s iconic Eglinton Casino took place over last weekend and, as always in poker mad Galway, was a great success and had an unbelievably raucous and irreverent atmosphere.

The festival opened with the €7k PLO 7-Max which was taken down by the IPT’s own Dwayne “Rego” Regan who defeated Fergal Coyle after a titanic heads-up battle. Next up was the Irish Poker Tour 150 with 15k guaranteed; the winner was Laurence Lernihan well-known player and club runner from Limerick. Now, in normal circumstances, many people would have been pleased to see Laurence win but on this occasion, he was up against the gorgeous and extremely popular Laura Crasenco and most everyone was deflated when Laurence hit a flush draw on the river against Laura’s flopped two pairs in the key hand of the tournament.

Winning a package for our upcoming Portugal adventure was one of the key targets for most players at the Festival either through our nightly raffles or by winning the Connacht Poker Cup where Paddy Power Poker had added a package to the winner’s prize. Remarkably, Tour Leg End Shane Keary won packages by both methods; first a raffle on Friday and then taking down the top spot in the Main Event. Other packages were won by Andrius Baltic Fish and local Daniel Casserly.

The last four standing in the Connacht Cup after two long days of effort were Shane (€4,830), Meler Bern (€3,670), Peter Huszti (€4,190), and Aidan Brady (€3,000) and they agreed a deal whereby the remaining €14k+ in the prize pool would be divided by ICM and that they would play on for the trophy and the Portugal package. Shane eventually came out on top as he always says he will.