Q>S

K>C

There are crowds milling around inside and outside the main tournament hall here at Citywest and the excitement has been building steadily since 11am. Single table satellites are underway for the final few hoping to secure Irish Open tickets, so cards are already in the air! A traditional Irish band is livening things up in the bar area outside the tournament hall and we will have Prison Love, the bluegrass band that rocked the crowd last night, back again this evening. Feel free to come over and join in the fun if you don't have other plans this Good Friday!

A>H

A big pot was brewing at another one of our more interesting tables, which features Jonathon Wong, Mick McCool, Dave Colclough, and Maria Maceiras. It was folded to Maceiras in the cutoff, who made it 2100 to go. Dave Colclough then re-raised to 6300 from the big blind. Maceiras didn't take long to 4-bet all-in for a grand total of 18650. Colclough went in the tank for a considerable amount of time, and eventually laid it down. The hand puts Colclough down to 25k, and bumps Maceiras up to 27k.

Padraig Parkinson's tournament life was on the line in a classic coinflip; his 66 vs AK.

The sixes held up though and Parkinson doubled through. With only 8 or so thousand chips and the blinds at 300/600 the amiable Irishman will have to get lucky a few more times to make a big impact in this tournament yet.

Jay Renehan with around 75k is your new chip leader! I got there just as the enormous mound of chips was being passed to Jay but apparently it was one incredible hand.

Basically, one guy moved in preflop with 55 and was called by both Jay and another player. The flop was 4s 8c 5s and there was a bet, a raise, and a call. The turn brought down a Qh. It was here that all the money went in the middle.

The other guy showed (what else?) pocket Aces but Jay had stuck gold dust - pocket 8's for set over set and set over Aces. They held up and Jay is currently in dreamland.

Roland De Wolfe just took down another sizable pot. Details are sketchy, but from what we hear, De Wolfe was playing a raised pot, and the flop came out 246 rainbow. All the money went in on the flop, with De Wolfe's 88 facing up to his opponent's A6. The snowmen didn't melt, and De Wolfe finds himself back in the 35k region again.

In other news, there was some minor hubbub over at Andy Black's table a while ago, with one of his tablemates being questioned over whether or not he is allowed to use a poker chip as a card protector. Andy justifiably thought this wasn't exactly appropriate, considering the player in question had just put out a 2600 chip bet in a raised heads-up pot, and eventually tournament co-ordinator Liam Flood was called over who ruled that it was allowed, and that the game of poker should continue, before he and Andy decided to trade friendly insults (mostly centering around Flood's choice of tie). Thankfully, it all ended amicably.

Latest Chip counts from CityWest

John Duthie 21,100

Brian "fox" O Keefe 25,200

Andy Greekfish 8,100

Ollie Boyce 8,900

Ivan Donnaghy 7,100

Doyle Brunson 15,400

Andy Black 37,000

Des Wilson 8,200

Dan Bolton 41,000

Todd Brunson 12,000

Kieren Small 21,000

Mick McCool 40,000

Dave Colclough 24,100

Ciaran Burke 19,000

Eoghan O Dea 13,000

John Kabajj 26,000

Andy Grimasson 21,000

Ciaran O Leary 15,500

Graham Clarkson 34,000