Ivan Tononi Wins Grand Prix at Irish Poker Festival

Italian Ivan Tononi took down the €550 Grand Prix at the Irish Poker Festival, topping a 267 player field, to increase his wealth by a tidy €32,000. With 3 starting flights and a €100,000 guarantee, this was the second busiest event at the festival, after the Party Poker MILLIONS main event. The final prize pool of €130,140 surpassed the guarantee. Tononi ended day 1 on 279k and went into the final day of the event sitting in 9th place of the 44 players who made it through. He defeated Knut Berntsen heads up to take the title and an iconic Party Poker Grand Prix trophy to boot!

€550 Grand Prix Result
Finishing Position | Player | Prize
1 | Ivan Tononi | €32,000
2 | Knut Berntsen | €21,000
3 | Jamie Cunningham | €13,300
4 | David Costello | €10,200
5 | Maximlian Sanders | €8,200
6 | Daniel G Smith | €6,500
7 | John Patten | €5,160
8 | Keith Touhey | €4,100
9 | John Farrell | €3,200
10 | Damien Byrne | €2,600
11 | Jonathan K Daly | €2,200
12 | Declan O’Hara | €1,900
13 | Nicholas Newport | €1,600
14 | Adrian O’Donoghue | €1,600
15 | James Sullivan | €1,600
16 | James Noonan | €1,600
17 | Wojciech Szczytkowski | €1,400
18 | Christopher Logue | €1,400
19 | Peter McMahon | €1,400
20 | Dominik Fischer | €1,400
21 | David O’Kelly | €1,200
22 | Alan Trueick | €1,200
23 | Merivan Hassan | €1,200
24 | Surendre Naidoo | €1,200
25 | Johnathen McCullagh | €1,000
26 | Micrea Rus | €1,000
27 | Larry Ryan | €1,000
Total Players | 267 | €130,140

High Roller Result

Also carrying a €100,000 guaranteed prize pool, the €2,500 had started slowly on Saturday evening, with just 23 players registering on the first day of the tournament, suggesting that an overlay was possible. However such fears were unfounded as by the time late registration closed at the end of level 10 on day 2, an astonishing 36 additional players had entered, to bring the total number of entries up to 59, creating another guarantee smashing prize pool of €132,310. Irish Poker Festival honcho Fintan Gavin, who had taken 2nd place in the opening Omaha event on Tuesday ended up heads up once again in a tense battle for the trophy. But his Brazilian opponent, “Victorious” Vitor Hugo emerged as the eventual winner to take the €40,000 first prize, while Gavin appeared content with his second place finish and €33,310 in prize money.

€2,500 High Roller Result
Position | Player | Prize
1 | Vitor Hugo | €40,000
2 | Fintan Gavin | €33,310
3 | Simon Wilson | €21,000
4 | Christopher Day | €15,500
5 | Ioannis Angelou | €12,500
6 | Niko Koop | €10,000
Total Players | 59 | €132,310

Leinster Cup Result

The €550 Leinster Cup brought the festival to a close with 59 entrants and a €28,760 prize pool. To those familiar with the Irish poker scene, it will come as no surprise at all that the mercurial Paul Carr ended up taking it down. Paul has an astonishing record in recent years, with a truck load of final tables and numerous first place finishes in his live poker career. This was his 6th 1st place finish in 2023 alone and who would bet against him extending this further before the end of the year? He dominated the final table and after Dara O’Kearney exited in 3rd place he held an almost insurmountable lead over Gerard Wynne. There were a few twitchy moments at the end however as Gerard began to close the gap after winning a series of all-ins, but the maestro closed the deal when his AQ stood up against KQ in a hand that threatened to shift the chip balance in Wynne’s favour.

€550 Leinster Cup Result
Position | Player | Prize
1 | Paul Carr | €10,600
2 | Gerard Wynne | €6,500
3 | Dara O’Kearney | €4,300
4 | Ross Coveney | €2,900
5 | Trevor Dinneen | €2,100
6 | Niall McAree | €1,600
7 | Tanya Masters | €760
Total Players | 59 | €28,760

Jonathan Raab

Irish Poker Festival Media Coordinator